By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
At the direction of the school board, Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Alan Hawkins is proposing a fiscal year 2009 budget that “truly reflects what our school system needs.”
Due to time constraints, Hawkins provided a brief overview of the roughly $21.3 million budget to the school board Tuesday. He is proposing a $2.5 million or 13.28 percent increase from last year’s budget.
“It is not done as a comedy act,” Hawkins said, addressing the board. “It is done as serious information to you about what we need in our system.”
During the last three years, the budget cycle has been limited to the level of inflation, which is measured by the federal Consumer Price Index or CPI-U. Last year’s budget represented a 3 percent increase, which was a reduction from Hawkins’s recommendation for a 5.2 percent increase.
As proposed, Hawkins’ budget represents a $1.86 or 15.81 percent increase in the town’s tax rate for education  from $11.79 per $1,000 of assessed value to $13.65. Those figures are based on last year’s Essential Programs and Services (EPS) state subsidy of roughly $2.8 million. Hawkins said it is unclear when the district will learn next year’s actual figure, but the subsidy will likely be less than last year’s amount due to the state district consolidation law.
A number of the budget requests have been floated but not approved during previous budget cycles.
The most significant expenditure in Hawkins’ budget is staff increases, accounting for a roughly $1.1 million increase. Without the proposed staff changes, Hawkins’ budget would be roughly $20.2 million, which represents a 7.47 percent increase from last year’s budget.
Proposed staff changes include an additional literacy teacher at Pond Cove Elementary School for an increase of $29,650. In his budget summary, principal Tom Eismeier wrote, “research has shown that typically 20 percent of students require additional support to meet established reading benchmarks [and] currently, our three literacy teachers are able to provide support to approximately 90 students, or almost 15 percent of our population, each year.”
Cape Elizabeth Middle School Principal Steve Connolly recommended staff changes include the addition of two educational technician III positions should the projected fifth grade enrollment reach 160 students. With salary and benefits, the two positions would increase the budget by $70,200.
High school principal Jeffrey Shedd is recommending the addition of a literacy teacher for $59,300 to aid struggling students. With the additional instruction, those students would be required to take an additional support class during their freshman year in addition to their regular English class, according to Shedd’s budget summary.
Because of growing interest in Latin II courses, Shedd included a $11,860 increase for a Latin teacher in his budget request. Currently, the high school only offers Latin I. The Latin II class was cut last spring due to a lack of enrollment and budget constraints. In order to take Latin, students must also take French or Spanish courses. On Tuesday, Shedd said that policy is in place to encourage students to become fluent in a language by the time they graduate. In a straw vote, however, the school board favored doing away with the policy.
Shedd is also requesting the high school’s Achievement Center continue at its current level of staffing and services. The private Cape Elizabeth Educational Foundation (CEEF) funds presently supporting the center will be withdrawn completely next year. Maintaining the center will cost $25,000 next year.
Hawkins said district wide budget recommendations include increasing the athletic director position from part-time to full-time at an increase of $25,000; hiring an additional technology technician for the town and the school at a cost of $55,000; hiring an additional nurse for $59,300 to allow for one nurse in each school building and hiring a data facilitator to work with student learning data for $59,300.
The budget also includes two new resource room teacher positions in the district’s instructional support programs at Pond Cove and the middle school as well as three new curriculum instruction and assessment (CIA) teacher leader positions. Each position would increase the budget by $59,300.
In his budget summary, Hawkins said retiring personnel as well as energy costs will likely have an effect on the undesignated fund balance amount that will be carried over to next year’s budget.  Sabbaticals account for a $88,950 increase in the proposed budget, while energy costs – oil and electricity – are expected to increase by $132,200. Hawkins expects to see a surplus of roughly $210,484, which is a reduction from the 2006-07 fiscal year surplus of $250,000.
During last year’s school budget debate, the school board approved a motion to spend nearly $44,000 to forestall program cuts.
New textbooks and technology upgrades were also identified as areas of need, according to Hawkins’ budget summary.
Discussions about Hawkins’ proposed budget were expected to continue during a public workshop on Thursday after The Sentry’s deadline. Public workshops have also been scheduled for 7 p.m. on Feb. 26 and March 4 at the Cape Elizabeth High School Library. If necessary, another workshop will take place on March 6.
The school board expects to vote on the budget on March 11. The town council is expected to hold a public hearing on the entire municipal budget, including the school, on May 14. A budget adoption vote is expected on May 27 and under the new school consolidation legislation, a citizen vote on the adopted school budget has been scheduled for June 10.