AUBURN — They don’t call it an emergency budget meeting for nothing.

The School Committee is in a bit of a pickle and on Wednesday night, it showed. It was in their faces when they assembled at Auburn Hall and it was in their words as they tried to impress upon the public that they can only cut so much.

“I don’t believe,” said Committee Chairman Thomas Kendall, “that the community fully understands the impact this will have.”

That sentiment would prove to be the crux of the passionate and sometimes feisty discussion.

On Tuesday, Auburn voters rejected the school budget for a second time, sending the message that the $37.67 million earmarked for local schools was too much.

Fine, committee members said. They understand that nobody wants to pay more taxes, even for something so fundamentally important as education.

But while the committee commiserated, members also pointed out that whittling down the budget even further could have dire consequences for the future of the city. The state, for example, could cut school subsidies to Auburn by as much as $4.4 million, simply because the School Department didn’t spend enough on the current budget.

With funds even more greatly diminished next year, schools will likely deteriorate and the quality of education in Auburn will decline.

When that happens, Kendall warned, you begin a downward spiral. Without quality schools, a city has difficulty attracting new residents and new business, which in turn can actually mean lower property values and higher taxes for everyone.

“It’s a frightening proposition,” Kendall said. “Education is the cornerstone of any community. It’s absolutely an essential piece of the community’s growth. We are setting ourselves up for a much more difficult future.”

The Maine Department of Education’s Essential Programs and Services funding model is murky at best. The state requires each school system to spend a certain amount of money on schools before receiving full funding from the state.

“It’s not an easy process,” Kendall said. “It’s not an easy formula.”

Several people said that if the voting public doesn’t understand the complexities of school funding, it’s because the local School Committee doesn’t do a good enough job of communicating those issues.

“I keep hearing that the public doesn’t understand,” said Auburn resident John Wyman. “But there’s no outreach. There’s no going back and forth.”

Wyman, one of the more vocal citizens at the heavily attended meeting, said he had trouble finding information on the latest budget meeting, let alone on the budget itself. The School Department’s website was no help, he said, nor was its Facebook page.

Auburn parent Jaime Thibodeau agreed. In order to get fresh and understandable information, she would have to attend all of the School Committee meetings, no easy feat when you have children and a full-time job. Thibodeau wished there were easier ways to stay in the loop.

“There’s something missing,” she said. “There’s something lacking in the communication between the school system and the town. It’s extremely frustrating as a parent.”

A valid argument, perhaps, but as Superintendent Katy Grondin pointed out, those extra avenues of communication mean more money, which in turn only adds to a budget they’ve been ordered to whittle down.

“Things like Facebook and Web pages take manpower,” Grondin said.

Voters have repeatedly called for cuts in administration, which the School Committee have made in the past. Kendall, for one, said he was reluctant to cut further into that area.

“I think we’re lean on staffing,” Kendall said. “We’re lean on programs. I think it’s the wrong direction to take, to cut people from our staff.”

Whether the public will be swayed by the committee’s stance remains to be seen. The thrust of public response at the Wednesday night meeting was simple: Something has got to give.

“My income goes down, not up,” Wyman said. “When taxes go up, something has got to give. We’re not saying we don’t support education, but something has got to give.”

Wyman and others said they were wary about promises made by the School Committee. As an example, he cited the purchase of iPads a few years ago, which were supposed to be funded with grant money.

“We’re paying for those,” Wyman said. “I can’t afford an iPad myself, and I work for a living.”

How the next budget — and the next vote — go seems hinged on whether the voting public is convinced that lack of spending now will mean less state funding down the road.

City Councilor Leroy Walker sat in on the meeting and had his doubts that the state would yank a full $4.4 million out of the Auburn School Department.

“In my years, they haven’t always done what they’ve said they’re going to do,” Walker said. “I don’t believe the penalty is going to be as great as we fear it’s going to be.”

The vote Tuesday night was 1,206 to 820 against the proposed budget. Several people interviewed on voting day said they thought the committee had done a good job of cutting;  they would just like to see more cuts. At the same time, many of those people said they appreciate the state of education in Auburn and would not want to see it suffer.

With that in mind, the School Committee on Wednesday was just beginning the process of coming up with a budget that will be more palatable to voters. Such is the pain of being a School Committee member in the current economic climate.

“I feel like we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” member Laurie Tannenbaum said.

The School Committee will meet again at 5:30 p.m. next Wednesday to continue budget discussions. The committee, Grondin said, is working to adopt a new budget during the regular meeting that night at 7 p.m.

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com

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