001I'd >> like to welcome everyone to the Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 budget workshop, the Bangor School Committee. Sorry for the delay for those trying to watch from home. We had some camera issues. Uh, but our resourceful communications director, Finny, uh, Ray Finny, is going to be streaming live for us. So, thank you. Would everybody please rise for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Looks like we have no adjustments to the agenda. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> All right, moving on to public comments. Um, before we do public comments, I do have a statement I I need to read. Members of the public
002may address the school committee for up to three minutes on school and education matters. Public comments shall be directed to the school committee and be brief and not repetitive. School committee's practice is not to respond or debate with speakers during the public comment period. We are here to listen. The superintendent or her staff will follow up on comments outside of the meeting as appropriate. The committee will not permit profanity or shouting and requests that speakers be civil. Discussion of specific personnel or student matters and complaints concerning specific employees or students will not be allowed but will be addressed through established policies and procedures. Before speaking, we encourage speakers to review school committee policy AC, which provides that the committee does not and will not discriminate nor tolerate discrimination against students or employees on the basis
003of membership in a protected class. Speakers who share comments contrary to this policy will not be allowed to continue. Before starting, please state your name and place of residence. Do we have anyone here for public comment this evening? >> You're the only one. Hi, my name is Mike Norton. I was gonna tell all of you, Benjamin, Mallerie, Shelley, Sarah, Ben, Katie, Tim, Marie was going to give the world premiere explanation as to why our sky is consistently blue tonight. But because the technical difficulties announcement, I'm not going to do it tonight because I don't believe it's technical difficulties. I think they're just blowing negotiations and the first amendment right people's expression. So if there's not a copy of it as normatively, it's no point. So good good meeting to you tonight. Have a great week.
004Thank you. Are there any other public comments this evening? All right, seeing none, we move on to discussion items. We have a bud budget presentation. Superintendent Robinson. Just one moment. Smile. We'll get started in just a minute. I'll start off actually um by just giving kind of an overview um and for and thanking the team that's worked really hard to put this budget together. Uh there literally are thousands of lines in this budget and um it takes a team to put it together and really be thoughtful and mindful about um the composition and making sure that we are aligning that to student needs and um as well as you know making sure that we're being fiscally responsible and um everything that goes into that. Thank you. So today we're going to um take a look
005at areas of pride first. Um as I talked about last month, uh this really is a story of people. It's a story of students and families. Um it's not just numbers. The numbers are important. The numbers are impactful. However, we have to remember that it allows us to offer our students and families a world-class education right here in the Bangor School Department. Um, so we're going to review some of the same things that we went over last time. Uh, but we do have some additional areas of pride as you can see here. Um, NASA Tech Rise Challenge at Cohen students did an amazing job. um swimming champions. We have Down East peak night. Whoops. And we have um Fairmount students and SRO recognition. And then many of our extracurricular activities. So just keeping that in
006mind, there are so many amazing initiatives, amazing programs, and those span from students to families to community. So we're going to get into um and just a run through. I'll go back to the enrollment I mean the agenda real quickly. We're going to go through enrollment. We're going to go through the overview of the budget process. Um we're going to take a look at our financial assumptions and revenue funding sources, summary of budgetary changes, the um student needs summary, the strategic plan alignment, and then we're going to get into the details of the numbers, and that's there in the budget breakdown by cost centers and divisions. Um and I know we have a little bit of a different setup due to our camera issues today. So, if um you would like to follow along, you
007can check the district website under the school committee section and the copy of this presentation is linked there for those who are um following along at home. Um and then finally, we'll wrap up with conclusions and next steps and then any questions. Um and this is not going to be a voting evening. This is just a preliminary workshop. So, that discussion is really going to be vital. Um, Director Hail and I have gone through after reviewing with all of our department um, heads and leaders and district team leaders. Um, and we've gone through and we've made adjustments that we felt were reasonable um, and still maintain a sound program. Um, but we are certainly open to ideas to questions um, anything of that sort. Um, as we go through the presentation, just a reminder of
008our mission and vision. Um, the Bangor School Department provides educational opportunities that inspire students and adults to grow every day, to thrive over time, and to aspire continuously for excal experience of personalized and relationships based, fosters achievement, and enhances readiness for college, career, and life after their time in Bangor schools. So looking at our our uh historical enrollment, this was a projection that was created last year. Um and we've just taking taking a look at that. We are aware that uh while we have um seen a somewhat of a decline as I mentioned last time, we are plus five up from last year on our October one count. And then if uh we compare that to the projection, we're actually exceeding the projection by 103 students. So I'm going to be monitoring this projection um
009and possibly redoing it uh with current numbers to see how that um plays out. This goes up to 2035, which is hard to say, but accurate. Yes. >> I just wanted to ask this. Would would you prefer us to um share thoughts and ask questions as we progress through the presentation or save them until the end? >> I'm happy to answer any questions along the way. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> So, here we have our demographic data. Uh we can see the BSD student uh breakdown by ethnicity and also our socioeconomic status. uh we are a little over 50% in terms of those while we all students do get the free lunch we still have the forms that identify students um with um that would qualify for free and reduced so we're a little
010over 50% category uh this is following policy DGB which asks the three questions what is in the best interest of our students what is financially responsible and does this budget move us forward with the strategic plan and I think that's a key question to keep us to keep in mind because we are making some organizational changes that I do believe and our team believes is going to help us to move forward and to really um build that resiliency as we're seeing the challenges of public schools uh that that we're facing. our key budget priorities. Uh we want to ensure quality support for all students so they can achieve at high levels. Um we're going to make sure that we are taking measures to reduce budget lines. Um we got a little Google I I'll be
011honest looking scanning through the thousands of lines and seeing what pops out seeing you know can we adjust this? Does it need to be increased? Is it can it be decreased? um really trying to be mindful and then ensuring that BSD's organizational structure supports a high quality work environment for our staff. Uh we know that staff burnout is real and we're really trying to pay close attention to, you know, how are our staff fairing with the additional needs that are coming across, the additional challenges, and the additional numbers um of students that come in with um needing extra support. >> I think member Cook has a question. Yes, >> I didn't catch you in time, Dr. Robinson, but I'm wondering um what our return rate is on free and reduced lunch forms. >> We are
012working on that right now. So, I know at least one school has a 100% return. Um we've recently re um invigorated I would say um because sometimes what happens is families don't realize that that is an important form and um even though it is not something that will determine a free lunch at this point it does impact our subsidy and our title funding. So thank you for that question. Um any families filling out that please fill out that form. um it's not obvious that you will or will not qualify. So please for um the the school district sake, the department's sake and the and really looking at our subsidy, this can help to reduce the local tax burden the more if we can get all the forms back. >> I'll just say real quick to
013the >> Yeah, please do because I'll just keep great. Here's our budget timeline. So we um see last month we had our initial um presentation which really shared the narrative of the budget and today we are revis uh reviewing that narrative as well but also adding the um fiscal note that goes with it. So our uh revenue comes from state subsidy, title funding and grant funding and that helps to offset the other portion which is that local u the local tax dollars that help to fund public education. In terms of state subsidy, we have seen um this goes back quite a ways, this graph um something that has been in many presentations over the years and is a is a helpful visual I think just to see that the state subsidy has increased. Um it
014hasn't unfortunately increased at the level that um our economic needs have. So that's uh something that's currently in legislation right now to try to look at that funding formula to see how we can adjust that to uh better support the needs of education. So the state subsidy that we have received the these are here are the numbers and then we have um a link to our current ED279 and then we have uh director hail created an analysis of our ED279. So those are things that if there are specific questions on that um we're happy to answer. I'm not going to go into those details um at this time though. And then we see our title funding um that has pretty it has been pretty steady. We did see a little bit of a dip last
015year. And what we are anticipating is that um it will be pretty flatlined. We haven't received the final numbers yet. That should be coming at some point this month. Again, with our grant funding, uh this is a critical role. our full-time grant writer, Kathleen Nestlusen, um does an amazing job working collaboratively with schools and and community PTO's um to really um develop robust grant applications. And we've been very fortunate to be able to increase our grant funds, which directly offsets the um local portion that's needed, but also really serves to enhance the student programming that we're able to offer here in the Bangor School department. a question. >> Yes. >> Um, I brought this up a previous workshop and I'm I'm just curious, have we have we given any more thought to expanding our our
016grant writing staff. So, I'm looking at the it's almost $2.1 million that this person has has brought in. So clearly they're bringing a lot of value to the system and and I don't know enough about grant writing to to know whether or not more is necessarily better, more people is better or not, but I I'm interested if you're having that conversation. >> Well, it's something to definitely that can be discussed. I think the piece that has to be looked at is each of these grants requires staff to implement it. So while we are you know um getting funds you know this this there's a grant for this and a grant for that. So then we need people to do that. Um we need people to oversee it and people to uh monitor um the implementation.
017So the implementation is in consideration. Um I have that on the uh list to discuss with our district team because it does create um you know additional items for people to focus on. Thank you. I just wanted to use this section of the agenda to reamplify conversations we've had around foundation. Uh, I think that there are a lot of charitable and philanthropic dollars out there that if we organized in the right way, we might be able to shepherd. And I really could see in a few years having a >> I don't want to over overstate, but if we had a 10 to20 million foundation supporting the Bangor School department, it could spin off between a half a million and a million dollars a year in uh charitable support that could further supplement the budget or
018fund things that are maybe uh not, you know, the first items cut or things that particular or businesses out there might be inclined to support. Yes, I I definitely two things I want to say about that is um first is I've been in contact with the attorneys and I have the um >> the details of what is involved. So I'll be bringing that to an a to our April one of our April meetings. Um and I do think it's totally feasible to have that in place before the end of the year and then we will just need to um develop a board. Um and then work on you know what is the processes of you know generating some funding or um tapping into those potential sources. Um and then the other piece is just an
019example of what can happen. This is going back years, but um I've experienced a district that had a foundation that was very strong. And when there was a big push to cut the arts and the music programs, the district that had this foundation didn't have to cut anything. So, that's a great point. Um it's really um impactful and more and more schools around the state, I've learned as I've u been digging into this, are embarking on this and are developing these 501c3s. So it's definitely a a great um way to go. Thank you for bringing that up. So looking at the summary of major factors uh that are contributing to the budgetary increases of course our contractual obligations. Um one thing that was a positive still not great but um instead of 20% we have
020brought the health insurance rate down to 14. We had preliminary information that um helped us to make that decision. Um it's not solid, but it appeared as though 14% would it wouldn't go above that. Um so there will be further information. Again, that specific number is typically revealed to us in the beginning of April. Then we have our uh paid family medical leave. Um we have some discussions uh with the city in terms of that tax which is new this year. Um so there are discussions happening there. Um and that is an additional piece and of course our contractual increases. Um and I will say uh the school committee has done a really nice job of uh over the years even before I came to really negotiate well with the contract the contracts and make
021sure that um the wages in the Bangor school department are competitive and I think that's one of the pieces that has led to the retention of so many highquality educators here in the Bangor school department. Um something else that we've done this year is um well it was really last year but impacting this coming year um is looking at those who are paid on policies. So something that our former director of business and I recognized was that while contractual um employees rates were being increased there wasn't a full review of those that are paid on a policy. So we made sure to uh adjust those rates to reflect the increases that were uh deserved and match the uh cost of living increases. >> And then when we look at student programming um I mentioned this
022last time uh we are seeing an increase in need. Uh the director or the pupil services department has been serviced by just two people and um two administrative assistants and that the number of students um needing those services has increased drastically uh since 2017 probably um close to 200 additional students. Uh so we are looking to expand that department to be able to better service those students. And then under pupil services department, that whole department is not just special education. It services and oversees nurses, social workers, and multilingual services. So this year alone, we've had over a 100red ML students come into the district. So we um do need to increase that as well as social work, special education staff, and educational technicians. And then uh maintenance and facilities. Um we have again uh continuing
023with the projects to ensure safety and enhance the learning environment. Um I think everyone here is aware we have a capital maintenance plan that uh has been worked on and has really led to the um have right now. Um just continuous um improvement there >> schools. Uh, and I just think it's time for the community to start having a discussion about what that might look like, both for the logistics and the layout and the flow of our grades and schools, but also from a budgetary standpoint. We've all toured the schools and we see how old some of these buildings are and they're very charming in a certain way. It's I I love Fairmont School, for example. It's a 1919 building, but it feels that way in certain certain regards. I like the old brick schoolhouse,
024but it's an expensive building too from a utility standpoint and just capital needs and I don't know I don't want to stick because a lot of things get put pushed out to the summer. Uh discussion about just how expensive these buildings are and what financially it might look like to make some adjustments in the over the next few years. >> Yeah, that's um something that we are uh in the midst of discuss discussing right now. Um I was in Augusta today with a team of um school committee members as well as member Cook um to really take a close look at an opportunity from the Delhi May Foundation. Uh so further discussion and information is going to come from that. But essentially there is an application process that we can be awarded potentially up to
025a half a million dollars to help facilitate a conversation such as this and develop next steps. So in other words, looking at the overarching, we have older um we have buildings that need to be addressed in the Bangor school department. And then we also um may want to consider looking at the east west divide and is this an opportunity when we think about the um aging facilities to also look at that. And then um this application process and potential funding could help to facilitate that process to really ensure that community members are fully engaged in the process and helping us to develop a plan. Um and some of the data you just talked about. So um bringing in like what are the costs the capital maintenance um you know the financial impact of those buildings
026I think is going to be really helpful as we move forward with that conversation. >> Thank you. This last thing I'll say on it just I think we should continue to involve the city side of it as well. repurpose opportunities for these buildings, great neighborhoods, and we have a city council here, and uh it's worth a kind of shared conversation about what we could do with these spaces if there's some changes. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you very much for that update on the um Nelling May opportunities. I'm curious just given that we're sort of in the process of a strategic plan right now with community members, do you envision any of that content that's been collected being applied to how we view opportunities for other buildings? I know in the few meetings I've been in,
027east, west, old buildings, combination, more community centered learning has been a big part. Again, that's just a very minuscule piece of the conversation. Is the idea that this Nelly May opportunity would provide sort of another strategic plan for building opportunities only or can we sort of repurpose some of that that we've learned thus far in our strategic planning and maybe have some more funds, you know, opened up to to be a little bit more strategic in how we actually address these aging buildings with those funds. >> Absolutely. um one of the one of the outcomes from today's session and this was just preliminary so um we're still kind of learning the details of the opportunity but certainly it aligns to what you've said and what we want to do um we are going to have
028that preliminary draft analysis of the strategic plan later in um it's actually going to be May I have that in the I forget which meeting but it's one of the May meetings so um Jennifer Chase will be coming here and presenting those findings and then giving giving all of you an opportunity to add input right in the moment um through Google forms I believe is how she's going to do it um so that we can really have that um full input. Um but I do see the Nelly May opportunity as a continuation of um what is revealed through the strategic plan and I did uh check in with Jennifer uh last week and it sounds like there was like you said she mentioned it there was a lot of discussion around facilities. So, I think
029we're going to hear some preliminary ideas that we can um use as a springboard to get us started. >> Thank you. >> So, some of the proposed staffing changes here are um and I didn't have the grade six teacher on the other slide. I apologize for that. Um assistant director of pupil services. Again, um special ed education needs are increasing. Uh the department staff has not increased. So, we need to do that. Uh, there has been an influx of students at Cohen, particularly grade six, and uh, we're really, um, trying to make sure that class sizes do not exceed 25. Um, so that extra teacher at Cohen is necessary. And then additional edtech support to support students uh, to ensure safety and their ability to access education. And then our ML teacher. As I mentioned,
030we've had an increase in students needing ML services this year. And then the social worker, um, there aren't full-time social workers at Mary Snow and Cohen. It's one person split between, um, close to 700 or over 600 students. So, we're looking to add that piece to help uh, further support students. >> Have we been able to fill all edtech vacancies this school year? >> There are, I would say, almost. fairly well. No, you just did. I'm seeing I would say probably half of the building still have vacancies based on my informal assessment of nodding right there. And it always fluctuates. I can tell you, you know, like I'll I sign the papers of either they're coming in or they're going out and it is kind of a flow and we are working on that. Um
031it's just it's difficult you know this is uh especially for ed techs it's a it's a tough role it's a lot of responsibility so um it does um have a lot of transition sometimes any other questions um and then in terms of looking at where we can reduce the budget uh we are looking closely at that so there is a position at the high school um that is uh there's a retirement there and talking closly with Dr. Butler, he's been able to make some schedule changes to allow that not to be filled and not impact student programming. So, that's something that we're looking at as well. And again, just looking at our enrollment trends going from 2017 to 2025. Um, a little over 3,700 back then and now we're a little um over 3,400. And
032then in comparison, we see that students with special needs has increased from a little over 600 to um and that number isn't even that that's from October. So I just checked in on that and it's a little higher. It's it's closer. It's closing in on 900 at this point. Um so definitely seeing an increase there. And then here are um the numbers that re that are reflective of the graphs on the last page. question. >> Um, yeah, the the CO 19 impact that's just incredibly striking that loss of 224 students. >> Is there anything has there been anything in the strategic planning discussions or could there be potentially with the Snelly May um funds? Can we really dig into, you know, where are where do those students go? >> Um how can we get them
033back, right? Anything has that been a part of the strategic plan? >> Um I haven't gotten all of the preliminary results, so I wouldn't be able to answer that really accurately, but um what I can say is that I'm assuming and maybe I'm I would guess that this is there's a variety of reasons. Um we have tightened up with our homeschool population and we are at about 160. So um we were able to go over that. Last year I think it was closer to 200. So um but there's also people moving in and out of the area. So when people are gone it's really hard to um you know find them I guess to really know like when people leave where are they going? Um >> yeah, I would just be so interested to know
034of those 224 students, how many of them are still living in Bangor? >> It's a great question. >> Yeah. >> Um I think one thing we're doing proactively is we've revamped the eighth um grade presentations that happen at the sending schools and that has been really wellreceived and there's been lots of great feedback. Um we've also built some mentoring relationships with um at least Glenburn and looking to expla expand that um so that students are um connected with the Bangor school department and can hopefully make um an in a better informed decision as they look to high school. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Just wanted to chime in quickly too with um looking at these CO numbers especially I have been fascinated with this looking From a national perspective, I know this is
035very much on par with what happened across the country and from what I can recall from my late night reading, this was pretty much what's happening everywhere and a lot of kids haven't come back because families figured out a way to make it work. But if we could in that digging find out if this is a trend nationwide, I think that'd be helpful context. >> I agree with what me just said. Uh, and just to piggyback on it, we're in this cultural moment, I think, where a lot of families there's there's this distrust of public institutions, including schools. Uh, maybe some of it in places warranted or, you know, values based, and far be it for me to judge a family for making decisions, but uh, that they deem fit. But I also think much
036of it is misinformed, and I'm very biased towards the Bangor School Department. I think a lot of the kids that uh are going alternate routes or homeschooled actually would be better served in the Bangor school department. Uh and I think that we need to try to meet some of those families where they are by having small group discussions or workshops or a study of some kind with them or just listening to them about what their concerns are about the Bangor School department. I I think we all know people that are in that boat. And in the conversations I have, I often feel that people are misinformed that the schools are either much larger than they expect or that kids are going to be intimidated or that they're dangerous. And if those are the views out
037there, if they're inaccurate, we can't just I'm not saying we do this, but we can't just throw our hands up and say, "Well, what are we going to do?" we have to go and change the narrative so that they understand what their students could get out of a Bangor school department education. Uh, and I'd just like us to be more proactive on that and >> be a use our convening status to listen to people and I think we'll inform our thinking a little bit because I've counted up just in my neighborhood. I think there's 20 or 30 kids that are homeschooled. And when I sound judgmental about homeschooling, it's the right fit for a lot of people, but not for everyone. And I'd like to see more of those kids in our schools. And I
038think our campaign of belonging and really um stepping up our uh media presence uh social media and things of that sort has really been helpful. I know we've been monitoring comments and um you know really seeing a shift there. So that is one one way. Um but certainly any of you that know people in the neighborhoods that you are connected with by all means you know keep mentioning the the option and I know um members feed has spoken at previous meetings about the options for homesooled families that they can access even a portion of the education here and just test it out and see you know and and maybe once they're here they're going to realize that this is a great place and um I guess I'm a little biased too but I think it
039is many high quality programs things that you're not going to find um in in many other areas around here. >> To member Sprag's point, I'm wondering if we have data on how many of our Bangor kids are attending charter schools. >> We do have that information and I can get the specifics to you >> because I think it would be interesting to talk to those families as well. um because it's really interesting when we look at the data around um the certifications of our educators and how they have advanced degrees and um just kind of talking about that and in a lot of charter schools the educators are not certified and so really amplifying like how high quality the education is here. >> I could say more but I'm going to switch topics quickly about
040um this slide that's up right now. Um I have a couple things. The first about the special education um with IEPs and 504s or is that every student that falls under the pupil services? >> No, it's um IEPs and 504s. >> Okay. Um because I think this is also very um demonstrative of why our budget is looking the way that it is. And I just think that we should be amplifying this a bit more. seeing that, you know, in the past 10 years, we've had an increase of 200 students, not including any of the students. We're talking constantly about like, oh, this creates the increase that we've seen in, you know, families that are um multi-ingual and, you know, um all of the other pieces that fall under the pupil services umbrella. If we're looking
041at 200 students, over a hundred of those being in the past since 2023, um I can't imagine that we've seen a huge increase in the number of staff that we have serving these students. I know all the time there's always needs for more um staff support. So, I think that if we're going to say, okay, our big proposed budget changes do look at that pupil services umbrella and we can just say, yeah, since 2023, we've had more than 100 students with 504s and IEPs part join, you know, or either join or be identified or however those numbers have come to be um are now participating as students in our in our district, then we have to meet that need. And this is to me what we really should be looking at when we're looking at
042the budget. If we hear, you know, what are the ways that we can cut, what are the ways that we can change, how can we um, you know, uh, share resources with other cities, all of these ideas are good, but the numbers are right there. And I just want to say that again and again and again. >> Thank you. Yes, it's very critical and and I would say that one of the best my personal opinion and I think everyone here would recognize that one of the best investments that a community can make is in their public education system. Um we know that you know looking at our um you know there's this there's poverty in the area and you know be a being able to help families who either with special needs or having you
043know being at a less disadvantage than maybe some more affluent families. um being able to elevate them through education is one of the best ways to keep a community viable. And I know that's statewide. We're looking at the declining population. The the school department as a public school, we have the um obligation, absolute obligation to service any child who comes through the doors. And that is regardless of need, regardless of anything. And that's one of I think one of the amazing things about public schools. >> Can I just say to you, um I fully agree and I just think that is, wow, this is super obvious. I just think it bears saying out loud that the more that we invest in our public schools, the more families are willing to say, "Wow, there are so
044many great opportunities and resources and experiences and cool things that my student can do at this school that this district doesn't have or I never had growing up or this is going to help them achieve their dreams." And we're kind of in this, it's a circle, but it's also sort of like a a whirlpool at this point of saying, you know, that we're going to look at these other districts that I personally think are investing a great deal of money into their schools and then we're losing those students to those districts. I I think again looking at this budget and looking at what needs to be passed and looking at what needs to be approved on the whole, we have to invest in these buildings and resources and opportunities and making sure that every student
045has the teacher for them. If we're going to keep families in this district, it's going to be a no-brainer for people to send their kids to Bangor if we're able to reach those needs. We just have to invest in them first. >> Kind of stuck in that wheel, I think. >> Right. Right. Thank you. So when we look at our budget uh we always ensure that it aligns with our strategic plan specifically the core values um the four core values of our strategic plan are excellence learning and teaching engaged relationships and safety and well-being and there's a link there to the current 10-year plan. Uh the update to to the strategic plan will uh should be finalized in the summer, but as I mentioned, there'll be a preliminary draft analysis offered um in at our
046May meeting revenue. Um what you can see here um the top portion indicates the additional subsidy, the additional uh local amount that is required. Um and then we have the local above the required. So it's a little bit confusing. So in order to get the subsidy, we have a required local amount. And then with our budget, there's an additional local amount that we are requesting to be able to service the needs of all students in the school department. Um so the local amount is uh a little higher than typical uh but again this is reflective in the the student needs. So um and that's one of the things that the state is looking at in terms of that funding formula. um any of the shifts that they make, they're looking at it's it there's lots
047of parts to it, but just generally the a big piece of it is looking at um looking at valuation as well as economically disadvantaged students. And that hadn't been factored in in this new way that they're proposing in the past. So if that happens and they do pass that, we will be um higher receivers of subsidy based on our population. So looking down um we see that um overarching increase um in terms of need for um in terms of the state aid and the local amount is 9.44%. And then we go through um our tuition um any of the other areas that are um providing revenue for us. And um looking at last year to this year, we have maintained that fund balance. Uh the 1.25 million has been um consistent. So we've maintained that
048this year as well to help offset um the increase. Um but we are looking at a $66 million 365 um for our budget this year which is a little over $4 million increase um and that equates to 6.97% overall. Again we are monitoring the health insurance um and we will um be making adjustments as we can um for March 25th. I'm so sorry, Marie. And I know that you said this. Did you confirm that the 14% is final or that's the estimate based on >> That's the estimate. Okay. So, they they send they sent a letter that said um something to the effect that 14% it it shouldn't it doesn't they don't anticipate it exceeding 14%. >> Okay? >> Because things are looking better than last year and the cap last year was 14. So,
049>> okay. And then ours ended up coming in less than that even. >> And that's in April. Do you think that >> it's typically early April? I know um director Hail is attending a session tomorrow, right? So, uh with Anthem, so we're we try to pressure them for information. Um I did try that a lot last year, but they really they have a process and that's what they do. So, um we're kind of at that mercy and that's true of all school districts waiting for that. >> True. Thank you. So we've but this includes the 14%. >> It's 14. Yeah. So it's down from 20, >> right? >> Last time we talked about putting 20% in and then luckily we did get that information so we were able to reduce it and obviously we'll be
050reducing it based on the additional information. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Hopefully. Yeah. Shouldn't go any higher than this. >> Thank you, Dr. Robinson. >> Yes. >> So what do we do if revenue falls short? What have we done in the past and and what is the plan? What is plan B? um when I don't know that that's happened. That's really an odd thing to have happen for a school department. Um I haven't experienced that as a superintendent. I think it's important to budget um you know being very mindful of possibilities. Um so I haven't experienced that. I'm sure there's a a process that would go through with the city um if that did happen. And then there's also a process that you can go back to the taxpayers. I just haven't um experienced that
051myself. >> Uh thank you for the presentation. >> There's more. >> All right. Well, uh this is an important screen, so I'm going to pause here. >> It is. >> But I want to compliment you on the delivery and the organization, all the hard work that's gone into the budget. I appreciate it. Uh I am the only one that ever really says this, but the amount of the increase is a little higher than I would like to see, right? >> Uh I think it's uh easy. We we've addressed the needs, so it's a little bit unfair of me to draw out the needs and then also complain about the increase. I fully acknowledge that. But um I'm going to say it because I think there's a sense that if you're if you're not in favor
052of the budget increase, you're not somehow pro- education or uh you know there's there's people in the community are really struggling. Property taxpayers have a lot of pressures in their own budgets in their own homes, their own families. The city has a lot of pressures on their side of the budget. So this is an increase that outpaces inflation. I know that a huge portion of it is health health care costs and special needs costs and a little bit lesser factor than multilingual increase but um the uh I would like to see and I don't necessarily think you need to get into it right now because regrettably it may be personnel related if we were if there was further cuts what would that look like I don't want to put you on the spot to have
053to talk about that in front and it's just not the right venue >> oh I can I can speak to it >> okay well I'd like to hear like what would be the next round cut speed so we can have a sense of how much that would hurt and we we could balance the needs. >> Um I would hope that it sometimes seems to happen that the state subsidies a little higher or the insurance is a little bit lower than we think and maybe this 6.9 and 7% becomes like 5.7% or something like that. I hope that's the trajectory over the course of the spring but even still I think it's still a little bit high. So uh I just want to say that I appreciate you listening. >> Yes. I don't know when else
054is going to say it, but people usually thank me in the hallway for being to say it bolstered by that. >> I think it's fair >> before you jump in. Every meeting that you say that, I always say it on on record. So when you say that, it almost makes you feel like nobody's listening to me because I usually jump on after you and say I agree because I know people are struggling, you know, increasing tax. I mean, that's that's tough for people. I think everybody obviously is on the school committee because we love Langore School department. like we think it's the the foundation of you know the larger community but at the same time the people who have to pay for that they're they're you know things are tough inflation's high like this makes
055a difference in their lives um by increasing like every little increase affects their ability to get healthcare or to do whatever so I think we're all mindful of that and I like to say it too um but I also understand how difficult it is um and you don't want to go into you know other cuts that might be necessary we've been at least when I've been honest with you we've been lucky because usually there's is something like, oh, this price is actually much lower than we thought or oh, blah blah blah. So, like, we've been didn't have to make those hard decisions, but um there might come a time when we do have to to make those decisions. And I think I speak for more than just you that I I think we're willing to
056engage in those tough decisions if they're ne necessary. Um, go ahead. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. >> We can certainly engage in those conversations. Um, I mean, the majority of the budget is salaries and benefits. It's personnel. So, um, some of the things that you're looking at, I mean, like I said, Director Hail and I went through, um, pretty much line by line scanning and even looking very closely at things like, you know, do you need furniture this year? If not, take it out. And being really mindful of that, looking at um, utility costs, do we need a 20% increase? Can we go with a 15% increase? So, we've done all of those small things. We're going to review that again. Um, but the next step would really be personnel. Um so what we would need
057to take a close look at is you know what we're anticipating what do we want for class size. So as soon as you start reducing um staff you're going to look at classroom teachers you're going to look at support staff potentially um there are a lot of legalities around the support staff. So um that's a little bit tighter to be able you can't just you know not have something that's legally required of course. Um, but yes, I think that, you know, I've had the conversation and the, uh, building administrators are really being mindful of that. Um, I feel like right now we're looking at around 20 is like a fair class size. Um, like I said with, um, Cohen sixth grade getting up to, you know, eking up to 25 and not not even with
058any new students. And that was the issue last summer. We had an influx of students that um, really pushed the envelope. So, you know, that that would be the next step. Um, I've definitely been in that. I've done the the riffing process in my previous district. Um, it's not fun. It's not pleasant. Um, I know districts around the state have, you know, just districts I've looked at. Even last year cut some significant numbers of positions. So, um, you know, if it does come to that, there is a process for it. Um, it would be difficult, but, um, and it of course would impact, you know, it impacts the programming. So, you know, a class size, if we cap everything at 25, you know, 30, we're looking at a lot a very different educational experience than
059a class of, you know, 20 to 21. >> I just wanted to mention that um you'll probably be seeing in the media soon that there are a lot of districts that are making profound cuts to their staff um in their proposed budgets. And the most recent MECRI behavior report really indicates like crisis level behaviors and amplified behaviors happening in classrooms. And I'm really nervous about what this is going to mean for those districts. And when I see our proposed budgets, >> our proposed budget that's looking at adding positions to expand our offerings and support our students. I'm really proud of that and I feel grateful that that's what we're in a position to do um instead of removing things so that we can enhance the experience provide more students. >> Yeah. I I personally I
060think that we when we additionally cut education we reflect that it's not that important and that it you know it it perpetuates the mass exodus that has already happened over co because we're saying well we're cutting so therefore these programs aren't here and then people start to look elsewhere. >> Yeah. Just just briefly, I just want to add I I would be I would be very disappointed if we we had to engage in some sort of reduction in force particularly of classroom teachers and keeping in mind that studenttoteer ratio and there's just stacks and stacks and stacks of research that show that when that student teacher ratio starts to creep up much past 20 and especially above 25 it really negatively impacts >> work and and the entire team everyone here um um and I'm
061going to ask you a really simple question that's probably it's has a laughable answer but if we're I think that we all agree that as people who live in Bangor we also don't want our disgrace right and we we have so many friends and family who talk about it to us all the time and I think that we have to be perfectly blunt a hard job of of meeting the city and saying please believe us this is the most important thing. This is telling the story. People tell the story. We see the value in our people. We know that's where the value lies. The silly question is if we look through these proposed numbers and we're looking at transportation or admin, I already know can we what process or how might we even be able
062to help you identify ways that we could get a little bit more creative in some of those areas that don't address a reduction in force if we need to bring those numbers down. Well, that is something that we are going to look at. Again, as I mentioned, each individual line, you know, whether it's utilities, um, transportation, that's that contract is up this year >> after after this coming year. Yeah. >> This coming year, the contract is up. So, that's another thing that's in discussions right now across the region is we're looking at uh districts have come together to um take a close look at our SER bus contracts and um, you know, see what possibilities there are there. But I can also say that that's a tough that's a tough spot too. I mean it's
063really difficult to um to fund or to uh fill those positions rather and uh I know that Seir has a hard time keeping drivers. >> I know there's complications in every single line. I just can't help but think that there's districts out there in the United States somewhere who have said, "Oh, if we work with a nearby district to do this or if we, you know, are creative in this way for our facilities or whatever that looks like. Um I'd be curious to see maybe how we might just have to get creative so that we're not >> addressing any of the personnel. >> Yes. Um one thing that does come to mind as you're talking about this is the education service center, the press >> regional group. So um discussions are there. Um and there
064are, you know, places that do share staff. The issue is that we have enough students where we're not really the ones that need to share. Um so that's how it's played out at this point. Um some of the there are discussions though like I said with um the Pres region that are we going to regionalize services? Um one thing that has come up is the CDS which at this point is um state funded and they're saying it's going to be continually funded. So I don't anticipate a budgetary increase with that. Um but that we are looking at regionally. Um but yeah, in terms of regionalizing, I think better to look at and this is not for this year but for future is like uh member Sprag said with the um education foundation that's being formed
065and then um again with our community partnerships, you know, being able to branch out into the community and um have have things available to students that might have a lower fiscal note um is the way to go. >> Absolutely. And I just I I want to say that there are absolutely opportunities to create other funding revenue streams for our schools. And I'm excited that we're examining that. And I do just I saying that you need to be creative in your work. I I did not mean to imply that you know director already working incredibly thoughtfully on this. So thank you truly. >> Absolutely. No taking anything personal. >> I just I want to address address the the inflationary piece and I I understand it year-to-year inflation isn't wasn't 7%. However, inflation and inflationary pressures cast
066a long shadow and you know not that you know three or four years ago we had 9 10% uh inflation year to year and an example of that long shadow is I know just a year or two ago I think I think it was a year or two ago we gave a substantial increase to the wages for our educational technicians >> and the reason was the reason we did so is because many of them were making less per hour than you could make at McDonald's >> donuts or or McDonald's and nothing against working in those places. There's dignity in all work, but uh we we were having a hard time um recruiting educational technicians for those reasons. So, >> and and just to piggyback off of that, this as the state is um passing legislation
067to ensure you know reasonable wages, Bangor is pretty in line with that already. So, that's a testament to the work you've already done. So now we can get into um the specific categories and uh again if there are any questions um I don't know if you want to director h go over the um details of the budget categories. Um so these are the cost centers that are broken down um according to the state requirements. And then we have um Whoops. Click on that. >> You want to do it from here? >> You can do it. >> I can. >> Okay. Yeah. >> So, thank you very much. I'm excited to be a part of this process and I appreciate all of the administrators. Everybody's been amazing. Um, and the business office has been exceptionally helpful
068in this process. there's a lot that goes into the data entry and everything like that. So, I wanted to give them a little shout out as well. Um, so I'm actually going to look back um at the revenue side of things just so I can kind of highlight the changes there. So the we reduced the tuition uh for regular and special ed. And some of these changes you'll see are just a reflection of what is um and what the changes have been over maybe this previous this current year and previous years and trying to make it um the the budgeted numbers reflect what um the actuals are. Uh so tuition has gone down slightly. So, um, we adjusted that a little bit. Uh, the subsidy, as you all know, it went up $2.6 million. So,
069that's really good. Uh, some some districts do not get that. Um, good news and having their subsidy go up, which also uh the state share had increased and lowered the local share. Um, so that was that was another positive. And as you saw in that previous slide, it um it lowered the local required um to actually a little over $100,000. So that was uh a good change for you in the ED279. And as Marie mentioned before that there is a slide that um outlines the different changes in the ED279. So the changes from last year to this year. So that can kind of explain why you're seeing some of those increases or decreases. um regional programs. That was another reduction um just based on what the actual um is coming in investment income. That was
070um if you see the monthly financials, that one was one that was underbudgeted, but that had been um an account that we acquired just recently over the past year. So I think the budgeted amount was not um reflecting what it actually could be. So uh you'll see in a lot of these areas both on the revenue and expense side that um we're just trying to make make sure things are aligning to what they're um actually reflecting. So that was a significant increase. So that's helpful. Um and then switching over to the expenses the payroll. >> Sorry to interrupt. Can you guess do you know what the increase was >> for the um >> for the interest making? >> So I believe it was the budgeted last year was 13,000 and it I think we're going
071up to 200 actually it was 795 and increasing it to 300,000. So it was quite the increase. Yeah. Um, so then on the expense side of things, I'm at the sake of not repeating myself over and over again, all of the uh different cost centers you will see will um the payroll, the but the wages and benefits are all contractual obligations. So those are, you know, uh, collective bargaining agreements, things like that. Those are things that we are obligated to um, increase. And as Dr. Robinson mentioned the payroll is 80 to 90% of the total budget. So that those impacts have have quite a lot there. Uh the the medical leave tax, the new tax that everybody is well aware of. Um that is also another increase in there. So that is um half the
072employer cost and we're also following some details on that and that may be something that we're we're looking at over the next um between the the two budget presentations that that number may be adjusted a little bit. The health health insurance rates, we've talked about that a little bit. There's that 14%. Um I'm hoping to get some more information tomorrow. So, um I'm not hopeful about it, but we'll we'll see what they what they can give. But, um and then staffing changes. Overall, there was a net addition of 11 full-time equivalent positions. So, that is um for further explanation of that, as Dr. Robinson mentioned, there were some retirees. there may have been um certain positions that uh were, you know, half part-time positions or full positions. So then we may have added a half
073position. So netting the ones that um didn't return and the ones that were added, it's a total of the 11 full-time equivalent positions, just so you're aware of what that looked like overall. And then if you co go down to the regular instruction side, that um 11 full-time equivalent is actually so the impact total for those positions is $419,000 um for those that were added in. Um >> I don't know if you want to talk through all of that. No, I mean I'm just touch on those just a little bit because I'm not going to repeat the contract agreements and things like that, >> but the um >> so some other significant changes, you know, you'll you'll see the system admin um negotiations come up this year. So that's something that we we needed to
074um put in there that wasn't in there last year. So that that was a significant increase. And then um there is throughout the whole >> I think for other instruction we were going to talk about that a little bit. >> So the other instruction yeah that's the stipens um did you want to touch on that one? Yeah, I what we what we um identified is that some of the siphons that are in the contract hadn't been filled for a number of years and that had been taken out of the budget, but knowing that that possibility is there um and it's contractually obligated, we put that back. So that's why you'll see a significant increase in the other instruction is to make sure that those funds are there um when teachers uh and other um community
075members are able to you know take on those siphoned positions. And and the last thing I wanted to really touch on was the um for the all other expenditures that does include food service and food service is um it serves itself as far as the revenues and expenditures go, but the typically the department will contribute funds to the food service and last year it was $50,000, but um the food service actually has quite the fund balance. So we were able to hold that back and we we do not have to um contribute any any funds to that this year. So, that is actually really really positive and we've been able to do quite a bit within the food service of upgrading some of the facility things in the cafeterias at some of the schools. So,
076>> cafeteria tables. >> Yeah, some good some good things going on there with that. But um if anybody has any questions about anything specific. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So um each of these next slides um whoops going the wrong way. um the the budget uh cost centers. This is our graph um looking at regular instruction takes up you know a little over 40% and then you can see the breakdown of the other cost centers in a visual format. And here you can see each of the cost centers broken down um and then on the right hand side um what's included in that cost center. I know it can be confusing because there's different components to each of the cost centers. So, I'm not going to read through all of these. Please
077stop me if you have any particular questions on any of the cost centers. Regular instruction special. >> Is there a >> I'm going to defer to Heather for the specifics on that. Um, we I think it was a shift, but I'm um we mentioned before some of these things are maybe because they were um put into another cost center or in another category and they actually belonged in um one of these. So that may be why you see a significant increase. But yeah, >> yeah, you're like, "Oh, what do we need to buy?" No. So the so the tables that we talked about, you actually won't even see that in any of these um expenditures because it's going to be fully funded through the the food service which is not part of the the general
078fund budget. >> Yeah. So this is confusing when you get into the details because as you see like you know it's a significant percentage increase but obviously that's not reflected in the final and that's because they're shifting. So, you know, if you move one thing from something from one cost center to better align it into another cost center, it appears as though it's a significant increase and really it's a shift. >> Thank you. I think it's just important to see that. You're exactly right. You're seeing a decrease in other areas. So, thank you for that. Student and support staff, system administration, school administration. So is the increase in salaries on this. This is not um again not um staff but the contractual obligations. This is our transportation contract. Um, as I mentioned, uh, that's a
079a standard 4% increase in the contract and that will be something that we take a close look at um, coming up after it expires this year. facilities uh and maintenance, our debt service, the other expenditures and school lunch. And then this breaks down everything by division. So the cost centers are what the state requires and the divisions are what we do within the school department that breaks everything down um in Bangor. So if there aren't any further questions, um I want to thank all of you for your very thoughtful questions and comments. Um it's it's really great to have um all of you engage with the process. It's really important. Uh we are going to be reviewing everything again and um make any revisions as needed for uh March 25th and that will be the
080time when we um we'll look to to vote on that. Um we do have a piece in the charter that says we do have to deliver our school budget to the city. Um I think it's the Monday, the first Monday. >> Yeah, that >> before the first. >> So it's around that second Monday, >> April meeting that we have scheduled. However, we could we're hoping to get those Anthem rates locked in there, >> right? Yeah. >> So that's why we moved it back too. So it doesn't have to be finalized at the end of March. We do have that initial week in April. So that's why we shifted it. >> Any further questions? I just want to reiterate again um the the the quality of the budget presentation and the hard work that's evident clearly
081evident that went into this budget. I'm grateful to be in a in a city that um isn't doing drastic budget cuts that's really focusing on the importance of education um and you know putting their money where their mouth is essentially um to hopefully not only to raise the the future um but to um let other communities know that Bangor is really here for the students and that you're welcome um here as well. So, I just want to say thank you to this staff and everyone who who um input here today can really see it. >> Thank you. >> I'm just going to jump on that one as well, but also I always feel like it's important to remember how many of our employees and educators live in the city and want to invest in their
082own community again. And I appreciate that they're both giving their time and money and they get more of that back. But it's still um just I think an important reminder that you know we are asking residents to pay into their own And I I appreciate that. That's a challenging spot to be in. And again, this budget has been the most pleasant budget we've had. I will say that as consumable data and thank you for that. It's been actually pleasant to go through. Thank you. >> Yeah. I want to thank folks as well. Thank you Dr. Robinson and Director Hail for for this um wonderful presentation. Um and I know that we're looking at a a 6% increase in this. I I too talked to folks um this fall when knocking on doors and and there
083were some families that did um express, you know, as as um as as folks who are on fixed incomes and and their concern for budget costs. And so I think this presentation I think does a good job in talking about the return on investment and and that Bangor citizens will see from investing in education. And I think that's the the job that we have to do really is to ensure the um folks of Bangor that we are mindful of that. We're mindful of the budget costs. We're mindful of um costs of of living increases but the investment that we put into education as being the most important investment that a community can make. Um, and I I would like to um, you know, look at some numbers as far as what other other uh, similar
084school districts are are putting together or are ex uh, expanding for their education. Um, I looked into some of the numbers. Um, and I think it would be valuable to um, also recognize the percentage of of investment of those communities of their overall city budget into education. I I believe Bangor uh, invests a smaller amount than a lot of the communities of similar size. Um, and I also want to recognize the the um where the budget sits right now because I imagine there's been a lot of hard work that has gone into what what um got it to the place where it is right now. >> Yeah, it was several percentage points higher before we started. >> I can imagine you've already >> Let's take a close look at this. Yeah, I can imagine you've
085already had those tough conversations and probably the budget came in when folks were looking at what do we need to go back and point back to those important questions about what's in the best interest of our students, what is financially responsible, and does it move us forward with a strategic plan. So, I'd like to actually go the opposite direction that members Frank went, which is to increase um that budget to meet those um original projections. Um and I wonder if you could talk about some of those hard decisions that you've already made. Um if if we were to um have more money um to put into the budget, what would that go towards? >> Well, I think um I would have to go back to the team to get the specifics. all of that is
086not fresh in my mind. Um but I would say that going through line by line and um you know thing finding things such as the interest on an account that hadn't been accounted for. So really um you know doing a deep dive and digging in um fortunately um I would say one thing that I can tell you that isn't in the budget that was discussed was an increase of instructional coaching. Um, and that's something that we have increased slightly, but I wasn't able to increase as much. Um, so that's one thing. Um, we do share some of those instructional coaches, and I'm um I know schools would love to have a full-time person, but that would be um that would be a significant increase. So, we're make we're making an impact and doing a great
087job with what we have. So, again, it's it's really trying to be mindful. um of the taxpayer and saying, you know, like this and recognizing that this is a um significant increase. And then, you know, looking at how we can um build this foundation that we're talking about prior to maybe adding these additional pieces knowing that we can then offset uh because I think you know there are those community members on that fixed income and we have to be mindful of them. So, you know, I think we are taking measures to um future-wise to offset um budgetary increases, but I do think that it is important and I appreciate that you're um bringing this topic up u because public schools in my I mean if we continue to cut cut, it's just going to um
088lead to you know poor outcomes for students for children and um and families and um education like I said is one of the as you said one of the best things that a community can invest in. >> Yeah. And I also wonder, we've had a couple of discussions on the buildings. We've talked about needs of multilingual students, of people services, those increases um in need that is there. And I would think you're being very judicious of adding one multilingual uh instructor, you know, to split, right? District wide. I I prefer to see more um I prefer see to see more um uh funds go towards pupil services. Um and so are are there other costs that we're leaving on the table when it comes to buildings, when it comes to like I I I would
089just want to just say that if we're thinking about these old buildings, what what are we not repairing? What are we what are we kicking down the road? And I would challenge the city to consider before any any other bond issue would have to come up to the city. Consider that consider the buildings of the schools and how as member spread said how can we look at the buildings um and their future use. >> And I I will say um speaking of facilities um we are certainly maintaining uh Mary Snow and Fairmont um but not looking to you know u do any largecale projects. Um, some of the ways that we're balancing the facil's needs is, you know, things like the front of a building is getting windows this year, the back of the building
090will get the windows next year. So, things of that sort, being really strategic, um, changing out sections of carpet, I smile because this has been a topic. Um, sections of carpets with in the schools as opposed to doing the entire school all at once. That that's not that, you know, I mean, that's manageable. um it's not ideal, but these are the concessions I would say that you know the building administrators are making knowing that it's not having a tremendous educational impact, but certainly overall will enhance the learning environment. Um if you haven't been to the buildings with the new floors, um I know they're they're great. They're really really great. And they also cut down on the cleaning cost. So we look at that the the you think about technology. Well, there's technology in floors.
091Who would have known? I just like this. Um, but cleaning and maintaining them is a lot less expensive. So, we're investing in these things with a again thinking of that return on investment. >> And I just want to really quickly answer your question because I also love to look at school districts that are comparable sizes and needs. Um, the average across the state right now is is 5 to 10%. I think we've all seen this trend. We all know this. But I was especially looking at um RSC21 which is in southern Maine kind of bunk. They also have a budget of 62.6 million um around the same amount of students that we have and theirs is an increase of 5.6. So we're almost there. I feel like this is exactly where I expected to see
092it just given the trend that we've seen and and how other state cities are moving the ones that aren't making massive personnel cuts. Um, so I again I appreciate all of the work that's gone into this and again yes how digestible it all is this evening. Thank you very much. >> Of course. >> Any other questions? >> I'll just wrap things up. Just want to I want to uh jump on the the thank you train here and particularly member Luciano's comment about being about feeling really well prepared during this budget season and um really that's really a testimony to you superintendent Robinson and your team. Um, I think you've done an amazing job communicating this uh to us and and to the public. Um, I I support the budget as it's presented. I think it
093strikes the the right balance. I think you mentioned that already that that balance of thinking about the taxpayers and cost of living, but also delivering on what the Bangro school department is known for, which is which is excellence uh in many ways. All right, moving along to information items. Um, we have uh meeting on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, a regular meeting 7 p.m. in the council chambers. Uh, Wednesday, April 8th, 2026, regular meeting at 7 p.m. in the council chambers. Wednesday, April 29, 2026, regular meeting 7 p.m. in the council chambers. And Wednesday, May 13, 2026, regular meeting 7 p.m. again here in the council chambers. I have a motion for a turn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? We are. >> Thank you.