Colpitts meets with Governor/EPS waiver included in LePage budget

OXFORD HILLS — Last week, SAD 17 Superintendent of Schools Rick Colpitts met with Governor Paul LePage in Augusta to go over the budget issues facing SAD 17 and other issues.

Colpitts said Friday, January 25, the meeting was positive, but indefinite.

"He was very respectful," said Colpitts.  "He obviously could not promise anything, but he certainly gave us his time, which I guess in this day and age is important."

The biennial budget proposed by Governor Paul LePage's administration includes a year-long extension of a waiver excuses school districts from paying the full local amount for education required by the state.

On Monday, Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Rier confirmed that a section in the 2014-2015 state budget allows school districts to fund education to the same percent as the state.

State statute obligates the state to fund 55 percent of K-12 education, but in reality it only fulfills around 84 percent of that commitment.

Language in the EPS statute that allowed school districts to fund to the same percentage was set to run out this June.

The waiver will extend that exception until 2014 if it is included in a final state budget.

That may come as good news for communities in SAD 17 –  in a  December school board meeting, Colpitts warned that without a waiver, the district would need to cover a $1.8 million funding gap or risk losing state aid.

Reaching that funding requirement could mean an 11 percent increase in local assessments, Colpitts told board members.

Officials from SAD 17 and other school districts faced with the prospect of raising taxes to meet the EPS requirements are currently rallying support behind two bills that would ease the EPS requirements.