JACKMAN — Residents in Jackman and Moose River will vote Wednesday on whether to approve a $2.1 million school budget, which includes a roughly 7 percent decrease in spending from current spending.

Reductions include laying off one teacher and hours reductions for other staff members.

Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jackman and Moose River town offices.

This is the second time the communities will vote on the budget after it was rejected last month, and the district is now presenting a decrease of $164,183 from the 2012–13 budget.

The proposed $2,121,873 budget includes eliminating a full-time elementary school teacher position and reductions in hours for a physical education position, an English teaching position, art teaching position and French teaching position.

There are also cuts of $5,716 to athletics and co-curricular activities and$5,987 to adult education.

The changes in the budget include a decrease of $124,171 in maintenance fees, which were exceptionally high last year because of the cost of installling pellet boilers, said Denise Plante, principal and assistant superintendent. The new equipment and installation of the pellet biolers cost about $114,000 but has already allowed the district to save about $13,000 in heating costs, according to the proposed budget.

However, the district is also facing increased costs of about $45,000 in special education because of student needs and a shift in teacher retirement costs from the state to local districts for an increased cost of about $30,000, she said. There are also small increases in things such as transportation costs and insurance rates.

The reductions in classroom teaching time shouldn’t have a significant impact on students because they reflect changes in enrollment, Plante said.

For taxpayers, residents in Jackman can expect to pay $9,258 less in local funding and residents in Moose River can expect to pay $7,896 more.

That means that the property taxes on a $100,000 home would decrease by $11.15 in Jackman and increase by $27.42 in Moose River, said Plante. She said the changes are related to changes in state property valuations in each community, which are used to determine the amount of local and state funding communities receive.

Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
rohm@mainetoday.com