Irked board passes $28.5M school budget

Kennebec Journal, April 26, 2007

(excerpt) Board member Susan Campbell, who joined member Gregg Bernstein in voting against the budget, expressed frustration with the City Council and state Legislature for having unrealistic budget expectations.

She said councilors expect schools to fully fund athletics without exceeding spending guidelines in the Essential Programs and Services funding model. But that state funding model only allocates funds to pay for about 10 percent of what schools actually spend on athletics.

And it's student academic achievement, Campbell suggested, that gets sacrificed as athletic programs, which she said she supports, get funding that otherwise would fund academics.

"We either go to the City Council with what we need or I'm not supporting the budget." Campbell said. "The City Council doesn't get it. They don't understand (Essential Programs and Services). And at this point I'm not sure the Legislature does either."