SALEM — Superintendent Quenten Clark presented the MSAD #58 School Board of Directors a preliminary budget for the 2010/11 school year last Thursday.

Due to reduced state subsidy, a $10 millionplus budget was reduced by $567,299. Clark achieved this by expanding administrative services, eliminating a couple of positions and services and finding reductions in maintenance.

He explained that over the next month they’ll discuss the issues line item by line item and if directors want additional items removed or retuned to the budget, he’ll do so.

This preliminary budget is a proposal and the final budget that will be sent to the voters will be determined by the school board.

One of the bigger savings concerned individual school principals. With Stratton Principal Lorrie Arruda’s retirement, Clark reduced the amount of district principals from fourand one-half to three. Clark said he’d be returning as the full-time superintendent and no longer be the half-time principal at Phillips.

Strong Elementary principal Felecia Pease would be half-time in Strong and half-time in Phillips. Kingfield principal Marco Aliberti would also share his services with Stratton.

Clark said there was some savings in maintenance and transportation through administrative changes with Dan Worcester retiring. But the biggest savings came in summer maintenance where he reduced that line item by $45,000. Maintenance and transportation is showing a total savings of $71,968.

Clark noted that two buses were in the budget for next year and reminded those in attendance that buses were nearly 90 percent reimbursable by the state the following year. “A bus for us in the end costs less then a family car costs to most other people,” said Clark.

A $61,000 saving was achieved in technology largely by transferring an integration position to a teacher’s position and eliminating one full-time position at Mt. Abram.

“We’re losing upward of 20 kids next year at Mt. Abram so EPS says 15 kids to one teacher,” Clark said. “We have not decided who, what subject or what position that would be… We’ll do that through Brenda (Stevens, Mt. Abram principal) and let them figure it out. I have my ideas obviously, but I’ll let them try to resolve that themselves.”

Clark also said they were going to eliminate a fulltime art teacher from the elementary schools and bring back Steve Mitman to be full-time instructor at the four elementary schools. Mitman was half-time at Mt. Abram in an advisory role filling the shoes of last year’s retiree, Gary Perlson. “Someone else here at the high school is going to have to pick that up,” Clark said. “If the board wants more elementary art time the board can either elect to restore the position being cut, or they could reassign one of the high school art teachers to work in the elementary schools.”

He also said that they’re going to eliminate one halftime nursing position that will more than likely be divided up by the three half-time nurses.

“This is going to get interesting, I’m going to eliminate junior varsity coaches from Mt. Abram so we will have varsity teams, but no JVs,” Clark said. The cost savings there is $10,392. Clark also said the athletic trainer’s position will be cut, saving between $7,000 and $9,000.

Clark also said he’s proposing to reduce vocational tuition by $12,000 and eliminate professional development saving $11,000. Other items were also mentioned as reduced or eliminated such as uniforms and new teacher mentor stipends.

Clark mentioned that there’s less of a buy-out for the school lunch program, saving the district $12,000. The school lunch program loses money and will continue to lose money every year, Clark explained. “The transfer to the school lunch program is really much bigger than this.” The district pays for health insurance for the cooks and that amounts to a total line item of about $150,000 a year, he said.

One of the last items being reduced, changed or cut and will see most of the arguments, Clark suggested. “We have those 25 elementary coaches, so I’m proposing doing away with basically half of them and going with unisex teams so that boys and girls play on the same team,” Clark said. That will be an interesting discussion, he said. “In the middle school, the girls are bigger than the boys, but the boys are quicker than the girls. I think the boys are safe but I’m not sure,” Clark joked.

Clark also mentioned he cut the general supply line in half from the previous year.

Members will continue discussion of the budget next Thursday, April 1.