by Mary Grow

In successive meetings April 14 and 16, Vassalboro Budget Committee members reviewed and endorsed proposed 2020-21 school and municipal budgets. They reviewed an almost-final draft of the town meeting warrant and agreed with selectmen’s and school board members’ recommendations on proposed expenditures.

Because the annual town meeting at which voters act on the next year’s budget has been postponed to June 22 (tentatively), Town Manager Mary Sabins and the school department have extra time to put the warrant in final form.

The proposed budgets in their current forms will leave the Vassalboro tax rate where it is this year. The amount of money needed from taxation has increased; however, Town Manager Mary Sabins expects property valuation will also have increased due to new construction so that the money will come from a bigger base. If, as Sabins expects, the assessor increases all valuations by at least five percent, to come closer to state standards, each taxpayer’s valuation will increase but the rate should go down enough to balance the increase.

However, there are still budget uncertainties. For example, Selectman John Melrose said the Kennebec County budget might increase more than selectmen expect. Revenues from the state and federal governments are less certain than usual in the current economic situation.

Since school board members began budget review in mid-March, they have reduced the money needed from taxation by more than $295,000, partly by deleting items and partly by reallocating funding to other sources.

Major deletions from the initial proposed budget include reducing insurance costs, after the increase for 2020-21 came in at less than one percent; cutting two full-time positions, Gifted and Talented and librarian/media specialist, to 3/5 positions; and refiguring the tuition account.

The school department has transferred half a special education secretary’s salary and benefits to MaineCare.

Two new expenditures that board members consider essential are replacing the antiquated and unreliable telephone/intercom system and hiring a math specialist in addition to the reading specialist (a position VCS has had for years that will be filled by a new person in the fall as Kathy Cioppa retires). The budget approved April 14 pays for the first-year telephone/intercom lease with money saved during the current shutdown and for the math specialist from Title I federal funds.

Budget committee members have repeatedly asked how much money the shutdown is saving. Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said the administration is keeping track but not yet totaling figures. He estimated up to $40,000 will not be spent on heating the building, using buses daily and for field trips, hiring substitute teachers, paying coaches’ stipends for spring sports and other items.

Regional school association staff now need to translate the budget accepted by the School Board into the warrant articles required by the state.

The draft municipal budget, like the school budget, should have no effect on the tax rate, assuming no major changes in non-tax revenues or required expenditures.

At their April 16 meeting selectmen made decisions on previously-discussed topics (see The Town Line, April 9 and also here).

They are not recommending a pay freeze for staff, nor are they recommending additional pay increases in the public works department based on length of service. Sabins polled five nearby towns and found their raises will proceed as planned, and Vassalboro school officials intend to honor contractual pay increases. Sabins said municipal employees are scheduled to get a 2.5 percent increase.

Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus said so far there is no sign that the world-wide drop in oil prices will translate into lower paving costs by summer. Selectmen added $16,000 from undesignated fund balance to the paving budget to reduce demand on taxes. If paving costs do drop, they hope to do additional work, for example, paving at least part of the town garage driveway.

The volunteer fire department’s request for a new fire truck is in the town meeting warrant, under terms that would postpone the first payment from taxation until the summer of 2023. However, the selectmen unanimously and the budget committee by a 6-2 vote (with two abstentions) advise voters to reject the article.

Titus said out of respect for the firefighters, he wanted the article presented to voters; but, he told budget committee members, he thinks “it’s a big commitment for the town to enter into in the current situation.”

by Mary Grow

In a normal year, Vassalboro selectmen and Budget Committee members get increasingly reliable figures as they move through the municipal budget process, from initial requests in January to definite figures in April for town meeting voters’ action in June.

In 2020 uncertainties are increasing as fast as they’re decreasing, on both the revenue and the expenditure side.

Selectmen held a virtual budget workshop in March 31, and on April 2, after their regular meeting (see below/above/p. ), they and budget committee members talked virtually for another hour and a half.

The goal shared by both committees, but not necessarily with the same specifics, is to provide for municipal needs at a price taxpayers can afford.

In addition to property taxes, revenue comes from excise taxes on motor vehicles, fees, the state and federal governments and other sources. The school budget, which selectmen do not control, is the major annual expenditure. Revenues also support town government and the county tax.

On the revenue side, a major uncertainty is the effect of the economic downturn on state and federal aid to towns and cities.

Another question raised at the municipal budget meetings and earlier among school board members was the effect of unemployment on taxpayers’ ability to pay 2020-21 taxes.

On expenditures, selectmen recommend increasing town support for the First Responders, on the ground of increased need, and increasing the total for firefighters’ stipends, based on current-year expenditures.

They expect the Kennebec County budget request, and therefore Vassalboro’s county tax, will increase, because of additional local responsibilities (see The Town Line, Feb. 27, and March 12). Selectman John Melrose, Vassalboro’s representative on the county budget committee, said budget discussions haven’t yet started.

The draft 2020-21 budget calls for increased funds for road paving, because, Melrose said at the March 12 selectmen’s meeting, after several years of too-little repaving, Vassalboro has begun to catch up. Road Foreman Eugene Field thinks it possible that if oil prices stay low, the price of paving will be lower than expected.

Selectmen reached consensus on reducing several suggested or requested expenditures, including lowering estimated insurance costs; not increasing their own stipends; and eliminating a proposed part-time public works position and not supporting Field’s requested pay increases for veteran employees (see The Town Line, March 19).

The last item led to a recommendation for a later review of longevity provisions in the town’s personnel policy.

Also to be discussed at a later meeting are the Historical Society’s request for a $5,000 donation toward a $45,000 metal storage building (see The Town Line, March 19,).

Selectmen did not delete a request for $2,000 to continue plans to observe Vassalboro’s 250th anniversary (sestercentennial) in 2021. Melrose, with assistance from Fieldstone Gardens, has started anniversary improvements at the East Vassalboro memorial park.

Two major timing questions not yet resolved are when to buy a new town truck and a new fire truck.

No final decisions on municipal budget amounts were made, primarily because budget committee members want to see the final school budget first.

Town Manager Mary Sabins reported that Vassalboro’s overall property valuation has fallen below the level acceptable to the state. Therefore, she said, assessor Ellery Bane intends a town-wide valuation of at least five percent, perhaps 10 percent.

In addition, Sabins proposes asking Bane to begin the first of four quarterly reviews in 2020-21, during which he and his staff will visit about a quarter of the properties in town looking for changes that will affect individual valuations. The review will cost money, she said, but on the basis of past experience, it will bring in more money, from previously-unrecorded changes that increase valuation, than it will cost.

Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus favors proceeding with the quarterly review.

As of April 2, Sabins did not know whether Vassalboro’s June 1 town meeting can be held as scheduled. On the assumption that it will, budget committee members tentatively scheduled April 7 and April 9 meetings, the former to follow a tentatively-scheduled school board meeting.

Vassalboro’s virtual public meetings are announced on the school website, vcsvikings.org, under Information and can be watched there. As of April 6, the website listed the April 7 school board and budget committee meetings and the April 9 budget committee meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members held their first virtual meeting March 24, and thanks to the technical expertise of David Trask and Will Backman it worked efficiently. From their homes, board members and administrators discussed issues and made decisions as though they were sitting in the same room.

Much of the discussion involved reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic that made the virtual meeting necessary. Vassalboro Community School (VCS) has not held classes since Friday, March 13; decisions included unanimous votes to retroactively approve the closure from March 16 to March 27 and extend it to April 27.

Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer congratulated staff and administrators on their response to the situation. He has spent a lot of time coordinating action and exchanging ideas with state education officials and other area superintendents, he said.

VCS Principal Megan Allen said she has focused on keeping teachers and students connected and parents informed. Plans being made for April include daily check-ins with students via video, email or other technologies; sending lists of virtual learning opportunities students may visit if they choose; robocalls sharing new developments; and information about when and how best to reach a teacher.

Teaching staff are expected to spend at least five hours a week doing on-line professional development. Some might choose to explore more ways to communicate from a distance, Allen said.

Rather than eliminate school breakfast and lunch programs, VCS bus drivers and volunteer staff members are using big yellow buses for morning and noon meals-on-wheels deliveries, Pfeiffer said.

Allen said about 300 meals go out on each run. VCS’s enrollment is about 418, she added. There is plenty of food available, Pfeiffer said, but one item on his to-do list is finding out whether state education officials approve of the program.

At one point, the superintendent said, VCS ran low on bags for the meals. Bus driver Bob Hall appealed to Carl and Phyllis Farris, owners of Lakeview Lumber, in China, and the Farrises donated an ample supply of bags.

On other topics, school board members unanimously accepted the resignation of Kyle Irvine as Educational Technician I, Life Skills Program, and hired Tanya Doyon as his replacement. Pfeiffer said Irvine is pleased to be moving into a vacant position on the custodial staff, and welcomed Irvine’s experience and skills.

Allen and Waterville-based central office Special Education Director Amy Benham said Doyon had been at VCS only a week when the school shut down, but both said she had already made a good impression.

Board members discussed their involvement with the town-sponsored solar energy project. Pfeiffer and Jessica Clark, school board representative on the town solar committee, said the latest proposal is to buy into an out-of-town solar farm rather than have one built in Vassalboro, and the question is whether school board members are still interested. A decision was postponed to the special board meeting scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, mostly for more work on the 2020-21 school budget.

The next regular school board meeting is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, “hopefully in person,” Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur said.