ANSON — Residents in the local school district will be asked to consider a revised $10.5 million budget next week after officials trimmed an additional $80,000 from an earlier budget that failed in a referendum.
Regional School Unit 74 Superintendent Mike Tracy said Monday the revised $10,503,485 budget will be presented to voters in a district budget meeting at 6 p.m. May 30 at Carrabec High School.
The budget is up 4% from last year’s $10,092,515 budget and includes a 3.9% tax increase.
An earlier version of the budget, rejected by voters in a May referendum, included a 5.37% tax increase.
Tracy said the new numbers will translate to a tax increase of about one mil in Anson and about half a mil each in Embden, New Portland and Solon.
The $80,000 in cuts include $50,000 to be cut from the special education budget and $30,000 to be cut from the proposed salary for a director of operations, a new position the district was planning on hiring.
Special education costs are one of the largest increases in the budget, but Tracy said the district was able to revise the cost because two students who needed services out-of-district have moved since the start of budget discussions, and the district will no longer need to budget for them.
The director of operations position, budgeted at $80,000, will be trimmed to $50,000, Tracy said. He said hiring will be put on hold since it may not be possible to fill the job with a $50,000 salary.
“I think it’s a responsible budget,” Tracy said. “I believe the first budget was responsible, and I believe we’re getting into things we need now and reducing beyond what we need.”
Other cuts that have been made since the district’s first proposal for a $10.6 million budget include: $50,000 for a literacy coach, a new position; $10,000 for Wi-Fi updates across the district; another $20,000 from the special education budget; and $23,000 that had been budgeted to pay for raises in teacher salaries if legislation proposing a minimum $40,000 salary for teachers is approved by the Legislature.
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