RUMFORD — RSU 10 Superintendent Thomas Ward updated the board Thursday night to help Rumford selectmen better understand the school budget and funding.

Ward said he will meet with municipal officials in RSU 10’s other towns to do the same. He provided selectmen with handouts labeled Educational Funding in RSU 10 and State Valuation History for RSU 10 towns  from Maine Revenue Services  from 2002-03 to present.

“A lot of it comes down to what is the state going to fund education through General Purpose Aid and what your property valuations are doing,” he said, referring to the handouts.

“Our property valuations have finally caught up to the economy. For some reason, in Western Maine we didn’t see the decline in property valuations that Southern Maine saw through this economy.

Ward said the overall property valuation for the General Purpose Aid for 2013-14 for RSU 10 declined by $45 million.

“But when our property valuation goes down, we receive more aid from the state and, consequently, we’re receiving $1.3 million additional aid for RSU 10 because of that decline in our property valuations,” he said. “So that’s a good thing.”

However, Ward said that out of that $1.3 million, if Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal goes through, all school districts will have to pay half of the increased teacher retirement cost.

“So that would reduce that $1.3 million by approximately $250,000, so the reality is, we’ll probably realize about a $900,000 increase,” he said.

Ward said he wasn’t going to complain, though, because it’s the first time RSU 10 will receive a significant increase.

“So General Purpose Aid and property valuations play a major role in school funding,” he said.

Referring to his Educational Funding chart, Ward said 2004-05 “is when the state finally said, ‘We’re going to support education the way we’re supposed to do.'”

“But by law, the state’s supposed to fund 55 percent, so they started with what they call ‘the ramp to 55 percent,’ and they were doing pretty well,” he said.

“They got as far as 53 percent when Gov. Baldacci realized the state couldn’t really afford to pay 55 percent of education costs, and he put the brakes on and that was when the reorganization law came out (in 2007-08).

“He not only put the brakes on General Purpose Aid and started to reduce the proper funding of education, but he also instituted the reorganization effort to save money,” Ward said.

He said 2007-08 is when General Purpose Aid “started to decline fairly dramatically.”

During that period, Ward said the property valuations of RSU 10’s towns also declined. But the Rumford paper mill’s devaluation at that time helped boost state aid to RSU 10 and led to Rumford paying less for its local education assessment.

He said that when RSU 10 was formed in 2009-10, Rumford’s assessment dropped more than $300,000 in the first year, going from $6,465,048 in 2009-10 to $6,145,918 in 2010-11.

It then increased to $6,257,970 in 2011-12 and $6,580,042 in 2012-13, according to Ward’s chart.

“You have to remember that funding for the RSU for the first three years was zero,” Ward said. “It wasn’t until this fourth year that we had to bite the bullet and ask for an overall 3.3 percent increase.”

In the four years since the RSU was formed, Ward said they eliminated 65 positions, and then brought back 4.5, thereby eliminating 60 positions through retirement and attrition.

“That was $6.1 million that we saved our communities by doing that, and that’s really just the start,” he said.

The RSU continues to streamline and find better efficiencies, such as in transportation. He said last year they were able to lock in diesel and heating oil at around $3 a gallon for about a $300,000 savings.

“Through all of it, we’ve even been able to improve on the programming we offer our kids … and we had to do it in a way that didn’t cripple the RSU,” Ward said.

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