Voters of the four towns of School Administrative District 49 will go to the polls Tuesday to validate a $25.8 million spending package for the coming year. The votes, to be cast in a referendum, will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Albion, Benton and Clinton and from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Fairfield.
Voters accepted the school board’s recommendations on each article during the annual budget meeting in May, approving a budget that is 1.27 percent higher than the current budget adopted last year after failed votes forced deeper cuts.
To bring the 2016-17 budget down to an increase of under 2 percent, school board members had to cut five educational technician I positions and a teacher from the alternative education program.
In his letter to district voters in May, SAD 49 Superintendent Dean Baker said the budget for 2016-17 reflects a decrease in local property taxes of $77,985 despite a drop in state subsidy of about $267,000. He said the board chose not to spend $209,000 in state funding in the current year and to use the money instead to limit the need for local property taxes in the coming year. Baker said the recent reduction in energy costs because of a mild winter has helped keep spending down.
The board also applied a $370,000 refund from the Maine Public Employees Retirement System to the budget.
Highlights of the budget included:
• $10,462,027 for regular instruction, including salaries, benefits, maintenance, contracted services, supplies, books and equipment;
• $3,936,354 for special education;
• $2,428,963 for student and staff support;
• $1,356,845 for district administration;
• $1,638,538 for transportation; and
• $4,118,541 for facilities maintenance.
Residents in May also approved the allocation of $2,722,028 in additional local money above the $2,187,980 the district receives under the state’s essential programs and services model and approved appropriating $267,098 for adult education and raising another $140,000 as the local share for adult education. The district will spend no money in the coming year for debt service and $45,000 to support the hot lunch program in district schools if voters pass the budget referendum questions Tuesday.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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