By Ward Peck

Editor

    Faced with a $43,804 gap in next year’s school
budget, the Cape Elizabeth School board unanimously agreed to forgo
program cuts and instead tap the district’s contingency reserve.

    The board made the decision Tuesday night after
hearing from about 10 parents and children who spoke out against a plan
floated by Superintendent Alan Hawkins to cut the two-year Latin
program. The parents and students spoke passionately about the benefits
of Latin on language skills, test scores, knowledge of Western
civilization and Cape Elizabeth’s reputation as a quality school system
as well as the teaching ability of Morton Soule, who teaches the two
classes. One student, Graham Nichols, distributed a petition signed by
135 students on one day to preserve the program and Soule’s position.

    While more than 20 students have enrolled in next
year’s Latin I class, only two students have signed up for Latin II.
High School principal Jeff Shedd said that even without the budget
constraints, Latin II would likely be dropped until more students
enroll.

    Hawkins said after several years of town council
cuts to the school board budget request based upon a spending cap
pledge, there were no more non-classroom related spending cuts to make
up the shortfall.

School Board member Trish Brigham, said the town council, not the
school board was responsible for the need to cut education programs.

    “Put your comments in writing and send them to the
town council,” Brigham said to those who spoke against the Latin
program cut.

    School board member Kevin Sweeney agreed, saying
responsibility for the cuts, “lay squarely at the feet of the council.”

    Board member Rebecca Millett discussed finding
enough cuts to not only make up the $44,000 budget shortfall but an
additional $27,000 to restore a full time health instructor at the
Middle School cut earlier in the process.

    According to Middle School Principal Steve Connolly,
the board’s decision to make the health instructor part-time would
drastically reduce health education by reducing the number of topics
covered and the time spent covering topics preserved as well as
entirely dropping health education from the sixth grade curriculum.

    Millett proposed cutting a newly created technology
integrator at the high school, the school board’s contribution to a new
teacher-leader at the Middle School and funding for a special education
assistant at Pond Cove Elementary School.

    Millett said she was attempting to “share the pain,”
among all the schools and described being forced to scramble, because
the board was “placed in an artificial place by an artificial cap.”

Before voting on Millett’s proposal, Sweeney suggested the school board
instead use the $70,000 contingency fund to cover the gap.

    “God made contingency for emergencies like this,”
Sweeney said. “If something happens and there is a need we will go [to
the town council to request additional money].

    Board member Linda Winker then motioned to move
$58,744 out of the contingency account to cover the budget shortfall
and part of the increased salary for the health teacher with the
remainder made up by cutting the Latin II class.