PARIS — Maine School Administrative District 17 Superintendent Heather Manchester advised Budget Committee members Monday night that she has identified four items totaling $361,000 that have or may be cut from the 2024-25 budget.

The first item reduces elementary administration expenses by $102,000 at Paris Elementary School and Oxford Hills Middle School.

Manchester also cut $28,000 from the high school administration budget: $23,000 from postage and supplies and applying a $5,000 windfall realized by one new hire opting for less expensive health insurance.

In the transportation department’s budget, a plan to purchase and install 15 video cameras in vans was changed to be incremental instead of all being done at once. It would save another $40,000. Three cameras will be added now and the rest in future years.

Another $190,000 can be saved by deferring replacement of a glass block wall section at Oxford Elementary School. The project will be included in a districtwide capital improvements plan.

If the next budget fails to pass, directors floated options for further cuts, including music, art, physical education, transportation for high school athletics, and student support positions.

“We have a duty to educate the students of our district,” Director Lewis Williams of Hebron said. “We do not have a duty to fund athletics.”

Elementary adjustments

Manchester said the elementary administration adjustments involve positions at Agnes Gray Elementary, Paris Elementary and the middle school.

With middle school Principal Jessica McGreevy recently leaving her post, Assistant Principal Torrey Poland was named interim principal for the academic year, which started this week.

An educator had been appointed to fill Poland’s position. However, Agnes Gray Elementary School Principal Samantha Armstrong will transfer from her interim position of assistant principal at Paris Elementary, which she was slated to begin this school year, to assistant principal at the middle school.

To accommodate the larger student population at Paris Elementary, the district day treatment program is being relocated to Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway.

Manchester told directors that Paris Elementary Principal Lori Pacholski indicated that if her school no longer had day treatment responsibilities, it could operate effectively with no assistant principal.

Since February, students from West Paris have been sent to Rowe, Paris Elementary and Legion Memorial schools in Norway, Paris and West Paris, respectively, according to their grade.

For the 2024-25 school year, almost all West Paris students in grades one through six will attend Paris Elementary, with a few transferring to Hebron Station School. Prekindergarten and kindergarten students living in Paris and West Paris will attend Legion Memorial School in West Paris, a move that maximizes personnel funded by Community Concepts.

High school adjustments

Manchester told directors that responses to a budget survey sent last week indicate many voters oppose having three assistant principals at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris. However, she said circumstances make it necessary to maintain those positions.

The third assistant principal position was created rather than a new role, as some Oxford Hills residents have claimed on social media, because the district’s guidance counselor job description has changed from serving grades K-12 to grades 9-12.

The district’s guidance office was at the high school and most of the time was being taken up on high school matters.

“The third assistant principal is a reallocation of an administrative position coded to a different cost center,” Manchester said earlier this month. “The salary is the same and is budget neutral.”

During the 2023-24 school year at the high school, administrators handled a total of 570 behavioral incident. Last year, between September and November, there were 230, which was when the request to reallocate the position was made.

Assistant principals are responsible for meeting with parents or guardians to follow up with student behaviors. Often it requires holding two meetings to accommodate split parenting families.

They also handle teacher and education technician evaluations, set this year with 20 probationary teachers, 17 continuing contract teachers, and 29 support staff. Each teacher evaluation must include at least two classroom observations, including time for communications before and after each observation.

High school administration coordinates 504 plans for about 80 students. Administration also shares responsibilities for the building’s Comprehensive Threat Assessment process and procedures, parent meetings and more than 300 individual educational plan meetings a year, which can require additional case conferences.

“The demands of the assistant principal position have led to high turnover,” Manchester said. “We have hired six people in that role over the last three years.”

During Monday’s meeting, Manchester also explained that the administration budget line items are not just principal salaries and benefits.

The line items are the total administrative costs for each school. In addition to principals, secretary salaries and other operational expenses such as supplies and postag3 are included.

Up next

The next directors’ meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The Budget Committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A special directors’ meeting is scheduled for Sept. 9 to vote on a third proposed budget.

A public hearing on the budget will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 19 in The Forum at the high school.

A final districtwide vote is set for Oct. 8 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at polling places in the eight district towns.