Despite a tax hike concern, several residents expressed their strong support for funding a district-wide middle school health teacher during a special school board budget discussion in Woolwich Monday night.

Residents of Regional School Unit 1 (Arrowsic, Bath, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich) learned of the $1.7 million increase in the overall education budget for the upcoming school year and discussed their concerns with members of the school district's Board of Directors during the April 8 meeting.

People stood in line to speak at the microphone. Some expressed their support for funding a school resource officer and a concern about large class size in the fifth grade. Many more people standing before the board spoke in favor of funding staff to address a range of health-related issues, from diet and obesity to sexual activity and drug use. An increase of $303,087 in the proposed budget will fund programs and services board members have been considering.

Superintendent Patrick Manuel gave a brief presentation before board members and residents weighed in. This presentation, as well as a copy of the proposed budget can be found on the RSU website at: www.rsu1.org/.

The proposed budget for 2013-2014 is $1,715,890 more than the current year, a 6.6 percent difference. Most of that figure goes to pay for what school district administration staff say are mandatory costs ($1.4 million), but board members would like to include funds ($303,087) in the budget to pay for discretionary items, including four educational technician positions, additional time for a school resource officer, one additional maintenance position and additional slots for a pre-Kindergarten program.

For Woolwich, the proposed budget means a 16.37 percent increase over the current year (that's $509,888) in the town's local contribution. Thanking the RSU board for making sure the formula by which towns share these costs was changed in accordance with the law, Woolwich Board of Selectmen chairman David King expressed his concern for the increase in his town's share.

King explained the problem facing Woolwich with this proposed budget. The town's share is a little over a third of its entire municipal budget of $1.4 million. The average home in Woolwich is valued at about $200,000; and with the proposed local share allocated to the town, taxpayers with homes at this value would see an additional $300 tacked onto their bill.

“Things are really tough on the municipal front,” King said, bemoaning reductions in state subsidies for road repair, the threat of the loss of municipal revenue sharing and increased costs all around.

King said that while residents often feel they can't directly change costs in the education budget, they can work to cut spending in the town. While he understood the difficult position board members are in, King urged them to do what they can to reduce the impact on taxpayers.

Manuel said district staff are doing the best they can with staff and resources they have on hand. They have contacted outside organizations to help with some programs at the schools and have also reached out to others to get some feedback on addressing mental health and suicide prevention.

A school district priority would be to provide a life skills course (something the school district currently does not have) for grades 3-5 at Bath Middle School and Woolwich Central School, Manuel said. Central office staff member Sharon Brown said she was concerned by increased special education needs.

Heidi Tucker, Parent Outreach Coordinator for Access Health in Brunswick, expressed her support for funding health education in the school district and offered several statistics on suicide and substance abuse. Statistics she referred to can be found by visiting the Maine state website and searching “Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey.”

“Working with kids is all about relationships,” Morse High School teacher Linda Levesque, who has been an instructor for the past 34 years, said, “And having a certified health teacher that follows those kids and is there every day with the curriculum all the way through is key. It's about relationships and it's about working with these kids and helping them.”

Summarizing many of the comments made at the meeting, Board chairman Tim Harkins referred to the high poverty rate in the district and the challenge of meeting the needs of students. One person commented that a family was paying for their share of costs using money from their child's social security check.

“Those are the people that are going to be paying for this budget,” Harkins said. “It's us in this room and those folks, too.”

He urged residents to participate in the budget process. There will be another discussion of the proposed budget at the next Board of Directors' meeting. It will take place at the Fisher-Mitchell School in Bath, starting at 6 p.m., on Monday. April 29.

There will be a second reading of the budget on May 6, followed by a district-wide budget vote on Tuesday, May 28, with a budget validation vote on June 4.