Hallowell-area school district uses additional state money to reduce town contributions to budget

HALLOWELL — Regional School Unit 2 was able to decrease the local allocation portion of its budget by nearly $850,000 after receiving additional state funding.

RSU 2 was notified it will receive an additional $849,376 after Gov. Janet Mill’s proposal to add $187 million for public education was approved by the state Legislature. The bill will increase the state’s share for public education funding to 55% for the first time since 2004 when it was mandated by a statewide ballot question.

The RSU 2 board of directors talked in past meetings about how it plans to spend the additional funds and ultimately decided to use it to reduce the money collected from towns. Members decided unanimously Friday night in an emergency board meeting to use all the money received by the state to reduce the local allocation.

The original combined local allocation was $10,484,485; the new local assessment will be $9,635,109.

The school district’s overall budget is $32,606,636.

“As we discussed during budget process, our intent, knowing that (the money) was likely coming, was that once it happened, we would do reassessments,” board Chairperson Jon Hamann said. “So the money was returned to towns and reduces the overall assessment by that much.”

The budget will stay the same, but the amount of money each town pays will decrease based on the state funding.

The adjusted town allocations are the following:

• Dresden will pay $1,039,874 — a decrease of $91,669 from the original $1,131,543 assessment.

• Farmingdale will pay $1,651,045 — or $145,547 less than the original $1,796,592.

• Hallowell will pay $1,857,471 — a decrease of $163,744 from the initial $2,021,215.

• Monmouth will pay $3,057,549 — or $269,536 less than the initial $3,327,085.

• Richmond will pay $2,029,170 — a decrease of $178,880 from the original $2,208,050.

The new local foundation numbers, unveiled by Superintendent Tonya Arnold at the RSU 2 Emergency School Board meeting Friday night. Regional School Unit 2

Hamann said the amounts at which the local foundation is decreasing per town is determined by town valuations.

Residents and officials from the district’s five towns — Hallowell, Farmingdale, Dresden, Richmond and Monmouth — have been vocal throughout the budget progress, even going as far as voting the budget down in Dresden, Monmouth and Farmingdale. It passed overall with a 51-vote margin.