It's one of those times when level-headed people scratch their heads and wonder, "How much more can we deal with?"

The Wiscasset School Committee members may have only 750 students and three buildings, but their list of unresolved issues is enough to intimidate any sane person:

• broken down teacher contract negotiations;

• creating a budget that includes enough money for retroactive pay for two years, once a new contract is signed;

• declining enrollment, and the uncertainty of how many tuition students will attend

• rising fuel costs;

• spending money to keep three buildings going when only two are needed;

• the prospect of having to spend more money in order to close one of the two buildings;

• health care costs that continue to increase year after year

• voluminous paper work to keep up with state and federal regulations;

• a mandated school consolidation plan which has led to a proposed school district that looks like spaghetti;

• nine snow days, with criticism for not closing on some days and for not opening on other days

• the resignation of a school board member from the school board; and

• the resignation of a school board member from the school consolidation committee

On Monday afternoon several of these issues were raised as the committee had its third budget workshop, followed by their monthly meeting.

Although the proposed budget for 2008-2009 of $9.9 million "hasn't changed much," in the words of Superintendent of Schools Jay McIntire since it was presented at the first workshop, it has been cut from what would have been an 18 percent increase over the current budget to a 12 percent increase, committee member Lori Hanley noted.

McIntire said the budget as it stands now, with some cuts made, is 6.4 percent more than the current year's budget. However, the amount that local taxpayers will have to come up with is up 12 percent because revenue projections are down.

The meeting began with a Power Point presentation by Sarah Sutter and Tom Block on the value of arts education (next week's issue will include an article on this presentation). There had been some speculation that an art teacher would be cut.

At the end of the presentation, Block encouraged committee members "to come in and see what we do on a daily basis."

Committee member Doug Smith said he is still concerned about the teacher to student ratio in Wiscasset - one teacher for 242 students, when the state average is one teacher for every 328 students.

Another concern, he said is that Wiscasset is 42 percent above the average per pupil cost, "and this has been going on since the year 2000."

Smith said he sees the problem more at the high school than the middle or primary school.

High school principal Susan Poppish said there have already been three additional cuts in staff.

"I just don't know how much more deeply we can go in cutting," Poppish said. "We've been trying to use personnel to teach more than one subject as we downsize, and still keep the comprehensiveness."

One of the sources of revenue Wiscasset depends upon is tuition from small bordering towns like Westport Island and Alna which have no schools of their own. Keeping a comprehensive program that will attract tuition students, while still keeping spending under control is one of the biggest challenges the district faces.

Referring to tuition students, McIntire said, "It's hard for us to know how many eighth graders will be coming here every year. They sign up, but we never know how many will come."

Smith suggested the school committee set a deadline date for students to commit to attending.

The school committee asked principals and other administrators to come up with a list of items in their budgets they would propose cutting, in what order, if more cuts are required.

These were divided into four levels, with the first level being the first group to be cut and the fourth level being the last group to be cut. Each amounts to about $100,000. The purpose of the list is to show voters if they cut spending, what exactly will be lost.

The committee learned finances so far are on target - at 69.2 percent of the way through the school year, spending is about 64 percent.

Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Tim Pellerin praised all the employees of the school district for their work in putting together an emergency plan. The plan is designed to cover such events as fires, shooters in the schools, bus accidents, and other emergency situations.

Pellerin said McIntire's application for a Homeland Security grant to test the emergency plan was successful. A training for the entire staff, including bus drivers, food service workers, custodial staff, administrators, teachers, secretaries will be held on March 28. Given that there have been 30 violent school incidents since the year 2000, during which 93 people were killed, the importance of knowing what to do in an emergency is critical, Pellerin said.

School committee member Tony True gave the board his written resignation Monday night, saying it was too difficult for him to make the 3:30 p.m. meetings. He said he would continue to serve on the town's budget committee.

True was elected by a write-in during the last election.

Wiscasset will need a new representative on the Regional Planning Committee that is working on school consolidation, now that Doug Smith has resigned. None of the current school committee members indicated they could take on the task, which involves meetings every Thursday night, so the item was tabled.

Committee member Sandra Crehore praised the time and effort Smith has put in on the regionalization effort - first in trying to regionalize with Bath, and now with the proposed Sheepscot Valley Regional School District.

"People on the committee are just running out of steam," she said. "Doug has made a big contribution to this effort and he should be commended."