BAR HARBOR—The proposed $8.6 budget for the Mount Desert Island High School passed without incident at a lightly attended meeting on Feb. 11.

In all, 37 voters turned out to approve the budget for the 2009 to 2010 academic year.

Despite a .1 percent decrease in the budget, assessment is slated to increase 3.76 percent. The increase can be attributed to a $182,000 cut in state subsidy and a $75,000 decrease in tuition revenue, said the principal, Sally Leighton.

Not all the high school’s member town’s assessments will increase, however, due to the school’s funding formula, which is based on 33 percent enrollment and 67 percent valuation.

Bar Harbor’s assessment will increase 2.19 percent, said Ms. Leighton, or $7.53 per $100,000 of valuation. Mount Desert’s assessment will decrease .16 percent, or $2.15 per $100,000 of valuation. Southwest Harbor’s assessment is projected to increased 1.29 percent, or $3.38 per $100,000 of valuation, while Tremont’s assessment has gone down .11 percent or $7.95 per $100,000 of valuation.

Ms. Leighton was able to keep the budget flat by eliminating a dean of student’s job left vacant by the death of Beth Lyons. A reduction in debt service payments allowed for a slight decrease in this year’s budget as well, she said.

Decreases in state and tuition revenue are projected to continue into the next few years. Continued decreases in revenue from tuition students are expected due to a downward trend in enrollment. This year the school welcomed 130 tuition students, while next year it is projected that that number will decrease to 105. The decrease in tuition students follows the trend of declining enrollment overall, said Ms. Leighton.

At its peak, the high school saw numbers just over 700, while enrollment for the 2009 to 2010 school year is projected at 545, down 20 students from this year’s enrollment of 565. Based on middle school enrollment data, the downward trend in enrollment is expected to turn around in a few years.

As they did last year, tuition students account for about 19 percent of the total enrollment for the upcoming year, said Ms. Leighton. At $8,200 per student, tuition revenue is expected to drop from $1,082,400 to $861,000 in the upcoming year.

New structure

The $8.6 budget was presented by cost centers this year, resulting in an increase in the number of articles on the warrant. The change in presentation is due to the fact that the high school is in the process of transitioning from its current union structure to an Alternative Organization Structure (AOS), said high school superintendent Rob Liebow.

The AOS is composed of the four MDI towns – Bar Harbor, Tremont, Southwest Harbor, and Mount Desert and the outlying island communities on Swans Island, Frenchboro and the Cranberry Isles – now governed under the Union 98 school board, and Trenton, currently a member of School Union 92.

The new structure came about as a result of a hard-fought effort by island educators and legislators. The structure allows island schools, now operating as School Union 98, to comply with consolidation legislation while continuing to function much as they do at present. Legislators modeled the AOS on the MDI school system because it already contained a high level of centralized functions.

School officials have labored to form the reorganization plan since Gov. John Baldacci enacted his sweeping school consolidation legislation – requiring the 290 districts across the state to consolidate into about 80 – two years ago.

Central administration

The first budget meeting of the new AOS, dubbed the MDI Regional School System, took place on Jan. 21. At that meeting, voters from the eight-town regional school system unanimously approved a $1.1 million budget for central office administration for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

While the approved budget is 15 percent higher than the current budget for the old seven-town School Union 98, the additional costs are covered by the contribution from Trenton, the expanded school system’s new partner, said chairman Brian Hubbell.

To cover the system’s expanded scope, the central office will add one full-time assistant to the director of special education and one half-time learning assessment coordinator. The increases in personnel and bookkeeping costs are offset by improved efficiencies of scale, said Mr. Hubbell. “It’s a relatively painless way for us to grow.”

Budget validation

Neither budget will be finalized until they are confirmed by a budget validation referendum, set for Tuesday, June 9, at the high school. The new state-mandated budget approval process requires that all school budgets be validated by an additional vote. The process will be in effect for the next three years, at which time its continued use will be put to a vote.

“For our towns where warrant committees and select boards already take pride in scrutinizing school budgets, the validation referendum seems cumbersome and inefficient,” Mr. Hubbell said. “I think our voters are used to having the last word at town meetings. But, for the next three years, this extra requirement is the law.”