Ellsworth superintendent: rising student needs and mandates push FY27 budget toward hard staffing choices

Amy, the Ellsworth school superintendent, told the City Council at a March budget workshop that changing student needs and legal obligations are driving the FY27 draft budget and could force difficult staffing choices.

"If we were to take our current budget and try to get us to 8% to taxation, we would have to cut $840,000 from our budget," Amy said, presenting the version-one numbers and noting that the district had only just completed payroll entries after a new financial-software transition.

Why it matters: the presentation used October 1 enrollment — the state’s subsidy baseline — and highlighted several trends that raise costs: total enrollment reported at 1,242 students for the 2526 school year; special-education counts near 250 (with modest increases since Oct. 1); a jump in economically disadvantaged students from 432 to 553; and a rise in students qualifying under the Homeless Assistance Act from 41 to 57. Hancock County Technical Center enrollment rose from 264 to 312, with roughly 112 students from Ellsworth attending CTE programs.

Amy framed the FY27 requests against the district’s strategic plan goals — strengthening culture and climate, improving communication and trust, attracting and retaining staff, advancing academic alignment, expanding student opportunities, and optimizing resources. She listed FY26 accomplishments funded by prior voter-approved budgets including a behavioral-health specialist, expansion of pre-K from two to four classrooms, added technology staff, restored gifted-and-talented programming, new buses and routing software, and safety-camera upgrades funded in part by grants.

The superintendent warned of statutory and contractual pressures that limit local discretion. She described out-of-district placements (KidsPeace, Stillwater Academy, Bor Regional Health Program) and required education services for students hospitalized at Aadia Hospital as legally mandated costs that have risen. The district also ratified a teachers’ contract Tuesday night, which is embedded in the FY27 numbers.

On state policy, Amy urged councilors to monitor a proposed funding-formula change that preliminary simulations suggest would have added roughly $880,000 to Ellsworth under FY26 assumptions if adopted. She said the district will work with legislators to press for changes that could benefit Ellsworth, but cautioned that formula changes create winners and losers statewide.

The presentation included planning for the state’s FAPE transition: "We are going to be responsible whether schools want to be or not. We are going to be responsible for providing FAPE for all three and four year olds in Ellsworth," Amy said, describing a plan to phase in four-year-olds first and to hire a pre-K coordinator/assistant special-education director to manage interagency memoranda of understanding and MaineCare billing. The district plans to begin MaineCare billing for school-provided services on July 1 and use the revenue to fund a billing specialist; Amy said pilots in other districts showed the position can be self-funding.

Budget math and next steps: Amy said budget-to-budget the draft is up about 7.5%, and with current revenue assumptions the local appropriation figure would translate to roughly a 13.44% tax change. She told councilors the district will return to the council on April 2 with a more developed version and recommendations and that the council’s vote timing is driven in part by the school’s statutory deadlines for the ballot.

The superintendent took several council questions — including a request to follow up with an exact LD number for the funding-formula bill — and said the board and district will provide more details in subsequent workshops.

The school delegation left after the presentation; council staff and the city manager then continued the budget schedule discussion.