Use your school budget voting rights
To the editor:
The number of students (pre-K to 12) enrolled in SAD 1 has fallen from 2,069 in 2007 (source: PI Comprehensive Plan) to “around” 1,830 in 2016 (source: SAD 1) — a marked 12 percent decline over the period.
In contrast, the nominal annual total budget cost per District pupil rose rather dramatically from $10,854 in fiscal 2009 to $13,298 per pupil, as recently proposed in a still higher-than-last-year budget. In the face of falling student numbers, that’s a noteworthy increase of roughly 23 percent over only seven years!
On September 13th, District citizens vote again on the SAD 1 2016/17 school budget. You can probably sense which way I’ll vote. In my opinion, senior and other property taxpayers at least deserve a flat budget (over the previous year) from time to time, with no increases in taxes levied against the five communities in the District. There’s enough “flex” in the proposed $24.3 million operating budget to do that. Please vote!
Steve Sutter
Presque Isle
