The supplemental budget passed by the Maine Legislature last week included an additional $22.6 million to schools, in order for the state to meet its obligation to cover 55% of K-12 education spending.
But even with those extra funds, many districts say they can't keep up with rising costs, and are now looking at laying off educators and increasing local taxes to balance their budgets.
In RSU 10, based in Rumford, Superintendent Deb Alden described this year's school budget season as the worst she's experienced in seven years on the job. The district is getting about $40,000 in additional state money, but Alden said that doesn't come close to covering rising expenses.
Salaries, benefits and even the price of school supplies are up, and Alden said an inability to find enough trained staff is leading to higher costs, too. Alden said the district is seeing more students with severe disabilities, who it has to send to special purpose private schools, as it can't find qualified special education staff locally.
"One of these placements costs around $65,000, give or take, depending on where it is," Alden said. "So if a placement costs $65,000, and you have five more [students] than last year? That's like, whoa, huge."
Districts are also required to transport those students to and from those special-purpose schools. And Alden said because of a shortage of bus drivers, her district has had to contract with local transportation companies, which in some cases has cost the district thousands of dollars per week.
"It was something like between $500 and $800 a day," Alden said, when describing a recent example student who needed transportation. "And I was just in shock."
All of those additional costs have forced RSU 10 to make about $2.5 million in cuts from its budget, by trimming ed tech positions, field trips, junior varsity sports and more. And even with those cuts, the district's proposed budget could still result in a tax increase for some residents of more than 7%.
"It's a perfect storm of a variety of different reasons, why districts' budgets are going up." said Eileen King, the executive director of the Maine School Superintendents' Association.
King said that while additional state education funding is appreciated, it's unable to make up for an array of expenses and mandates that she said are adding substantial costs to school budgets across the state. The latest example, she said, is Maine's Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, which requires contributions of one percent of an employee's wages, beginning next January.
"[Half a percent] comes from the employees, 0.5% comes to the school district," King said. "Where do you think the school district is going to get money for that? It's going to come from increased school budgets."
In recent years, schools have used federal COVID relief funding to help alleviate some budget challenges and even add new positions. At MSAD 54 in Skowhegan, Superintendent Jonathan Moody said the funds paid for summer programming and added more social workers and substitute teachers. But that funding is coming to an end, and Moody said his district is now facing cuts.
"I think we have 13 COVID-related positions that are going away. And several that we've been able to keep," Moody said. "And then we've had some just regular budget positions which we've had to trim, to try to make sure that that local tax impact isn't more than our local taxpayers can handle."
A 2013 study found that Maine's school funding formula is "quite equitable" when compared with other states, but some school officials say changes are needed. Biddeford Superintendent Jeremy Ray said he hopes legislators will target schools with more students in poverty, who he says require a lot more support.
"Make that one change, and support our kids who need more funding behind them," Ray said.
A new law signed by Gov. Janet Mills this month directs the Maine Education Policy Research Institute and the Maine Department of Education to study components of the state's school funding process, including the use of property values to determine how much each municipality should contribute, as well as the state's ability to "adequately fund recruitment, retention, salaries and benefits of teachers and support staff." A report to lawmakers is due by March 2025.
