WOODLAND, Maine — A little over a dozen Woodland residents approved the town’s $2,129,273 school budget during Tuesday’s meeting held outside the town office garage.
Aside from a handful of clarifying questions, the majority of the 16 articles on the warrant were passed without discussion and the meeting was adjourned after roughly 15 minutes.
And while the overall budget is up by $123,645, the state allocation increased by $167,839 — or from $1,060,407 last year to $1,228,246 this year.
The local allocation, which is the minimum amount a municipality needs to raise in order to receive state funding, went up by $3,242 this year. The additional local, or the amount that needs to be raised beyond the minimum, increased by $45,678 this year.
According to the warrant for the meeting, the additional local allocation was due to increases in staff wages, benefits and insurance, increased costs for supplies and contracted services, and a decrease in tuition received.
Tuition decreased by $13,352 this year, which was less than the school had budgeted for. This resulted in a temporary negative $12,000 balance in the fund balance, however the difference was made up when the town received their local allocation on July 1.
One notable increase this year was the secondary education budget, which went from $418,000 last year to $577,342 this year — a jump or $159,342.
However several areas of the budget saw significant decreases this year, with K-8 instruction going from $728,775 last year to $681,331 this year, or a $47,443 reduction. Early beginnings saw a $26,178 reduction. The resource room budget went from $171,370 last year down to $95,541 this year, or a $75,829 decrease. The technology budget also decreased by $13,500.
