March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Parents protest proposed shorter school week

UNITY — Petitions are being circulated throughout the school district following the SAD 3 Board of Directors decision to go to a four-day school week.

The petitions state that “the quality of education would be adversely affected by the implementation of a four-day week.”

Paula Lewis, a parent who was contacted Sunday, said she had gathered approximately 150 signatures in the past few days.

Lewis said that many parents in the 11-town school district are “very concerned” that by choosing the four-day week as a way to reduce expenses, the school board had short-changed education.

Lewis said she was “frustrated” that the board had apparently closed off debate on the subject.

“I strongly feel that the public and myself want to work with the school board, but people are feeling frustrated that the access of communication have been exhausted,” Lewis said. “I just want to be assured that every possible option has been looked at.”

Faced with a $213,000 deficit, the school board last week voted 6-5 to shift to a four-day school week following the Christmas vacation. The four-day schedule would add one and one-half hours to the school day and result in savings of approximately $150,000.

Superintendent Gerald Clockedile said Friday that the shift would save the district approximately $90,000 in wages paid to the district’s hourly employees whose pay would be cut back more than $200 a month. Additional savings would be realized by lower social security taxes, reductions in the cost of utilities and heat, fewer hot lunches and less fuel for the operation of school buses.

According to the preliminary schedule, classes at the district’s six elementary schools will run from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The high school will begin the day at 7:40 a.m. and end at 3:17 p.m. Tentative plans call for a Tuesday through Friday school week.

Clockedile noted that before the four-day week can be implemented, the proposal must receive approval from the state Department of Education. Clockedile said that after outlining the proposal to one DOE official by telephone last week, “I was given a favorable reaction.”

Clockedile acknowledged that the reaction from parents was somewhat less enthusiastic. Noting the board’s 6-5 vote on the measure, Clockedile said the feeling in the community was falling along the same lines.

“We’ve had some calls from parents who do not support it, and I expect there are many more out there that I am not aware of,” Clockedile said. “It was a 6-5 vote, and I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the mood of the community is the same.”

Clockedile acknowledged that going to a four-day week was a difficult decision, but that the other options available would not have raised the needed money. He said the board rejected closing the schools during the winter months, or reverting to the single bus run system used in the mid 1980s. He said savings on the bus run would be approximately $87,000 and that closing the schools would save even less.

Cutting back on labor costs was the only realistic way of putting any kind of a dent in the $213,000 deficit, Clockedile acknowledged. He said that because much of the burden would fall on the hourly employees, he intended to ask the teaching and administrative staff to give up two days pay.

Should those contract employees agree to give up two days pay, as opposed to the hourly workers loss of approximately 25 days over the same period, an additional $18,000 could be cut from the deficit, he said.

The deficit was caused by a number of factors including high fuel costs, under-budgeting in several accounts, and an increase in the cost of health benefits. Although the board voted last month to enact a budget freeze in all accounts, it was not enough to reduce the deficit.

“We are trying to make these reductions as equitable as possible,” Clockedile said. “We are assuming that this will be a temporary measure for the rest of the year. We’re looking for our bottom line to not be in the red, or slightly better.”


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