Regional School Unit 12 has a major monkey on its back and only the start of a solution so far. The district's board froze spending October 10 after hearing that a number of factors last year have the district $1 million in the red.

Whitefield representative Joan Morin couldn't quite find the words for her feelings on the numbers. “It just makes me, I don't know what it makes me.”

Other board members described the big crunch as embarrassing and devastating. Other than the freeze, they don't yet know what they're going to do about it.

“It's something we have to be very, very aware of and look at thoroughly,” said Westport Island's Richard DeVries, head of the board's finance committee. “We've got a lot of recovering to do if we're going to end this year in the black.”

“We're looking in all sorts of places to try to do that,” DeVries said.

In an interview October 11, Superintendent Howard Tuttle said he does not expect the gap to be bridged in a single year.

He blamed the crunch in part on a lingering problem the district has had since it formed. The district, rather than towns on their own, covered two months' summer salaries before the start of its first school year.

The district is still recovering from that 14-month year, he said.

As for the new freeze, Tuttle will decide on spending requests as administrators propose them. The freeze does not affect tuition or union contracts, officials said.

Paychecks will keep coming and the buses will keep rolling, but the freeze is on for supplies, conferences and field trips not already approved. Even paper will only be bought if it is going to run out, Tuttle said.

“We will only spend money on things we absolutely have to spend money on,” the superintendent said.

According to pre-audit figures the officials discussed, overspending amounted to about $295,000 last year. Adding to the problem, the district got less state money than projected and lacked fallback funds to help bridge the gap. The result is a shortfall totaling $1,023,745.

The overspending stemmed in part from retroactive pay and unexpected costs from new special education students entering the district, Tuttle said.

Wiscasset, Alna, Westport Island, Windsor, Chelsea, Somerville, Palermo and Whitefield make up the district, among those formed when the state called for consolidation.

As the board considers ways to address the shortfall, it should also be looking ahead to more possible state cuts, Chelsea representative Diana McKenzie said. “Whatever we can do to prepare for that, we should be doing,” she said.