SAD 1 board adopts budget, sends to voters
Taxpayers in Castle Hill, Chapman, Mapleton, Presque Isle and Westfield will be asked to approve a school budget with a local tax increase of 9 percent on June 14, 2016.
The board of directors for School Administrative District 1 passed a budget at its May 3 meeting, with all but board member Brandon Roope voting in support of it.
The $25.1 million budget for 2016-17 brings an overall increase of 4.17 percent compared to the current fiscal year, with a 9.24 percent increase in the local tax assessment, to $9.23 million. The new spending is due to the district’s start of all-day kindergarten, additional special education costs, contracted employee raises and a hike in the state’s minimum mill rate, said Brian Carpenter, SAD 1 superintendent
Carpenter and assistant superintendent Clinton Deschene managed to pare down the budget from its original version, which would have raised the local tax assessment 13 percent.
The budget passed by the board includes new funding for four kindergarten teachers ($258,580), one full-time elementary education technician and one part-time elementary ed tech ($55,295), two new special education technicians ($73,277), and one new special ed teacher ($53,168).
Positions for the high school physical ed instructor and the career and technical education director are moving from half- to full-time at a cost of more than $30,000, and about $276,000 is going towards pay and benefit increases for existing staff. The district’s use of its fund balance is also costing an extra $420,985 for the next fiscal year.
A public hearing on the SAD 1 budget is set for June 2 at 7 p.m. at the high school cafeteria. Preceding that at 6:30 is a bond hearing for an asbestos abatement project. Along with the budget, voters will be asked to authorize the district to borrow up to $557,000 through Maine’s zero-interest revolving fund to pay for the removal of asbestos in areas at the 66-year-old high school.
The budget validation vote will be held at local polling places on June 14.
