PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Residents in Presque Isle, Mapleton, Chapman, Castle Hill and Westfield will head to the polls Tuesday, June 10 to vote on SAD 1’s $23,770,142 budget for 2014-15. While the district’s overall budget for the next school year is $24,008,863, the lower dollar amount will appear on the budget validation referendum.
Charles Anderson, SAD 1’s business manager, explained that the higher overall budget includes $238,721 for adult education.
“At the May 14 district budget meeting, voters initially approved $23,770,142, which is what we call the regular budget, exclusive of adult education. Under the law, that’s what you have to have the voters approve on June 10 … that actual regular budget amount,” he said. “The referendum number is just the regular programs budget; we’re not required by law to include the adult ed amount. However, when you add the two together, that’s where we come up with the $24,008,863.
“What the voters are really approving at the budget validation referendum is the regular budget. We were given authority at the district budget meeting for adult ed which doesn’t require the validation,” said Anderson. “The validation only applies to the regular budget.”
While the overall budget is up by 3.4 percent, total local taxes will decrease by $94,762 if the proposed budget passes.
“For the first time in five years, there’s an increase in state aid of $218,756. For the last several years we’ve seen large decreases in state aid which has complicated our budget situation immensely,” said Superintendent Gehrig Johnson. “The reason for that increase is that the 2013 state property valuation in our five communities is down 2.25 percent, and we’ve seen an increase in enrollment of nine students. Those two factors — combined — caused our increase in state aid.
“The two big increases in our budget are due to a large increase of 9.5 percent in medical insurance premiums driving up employee benefit costs by $491,715, as well as teacher retirement costs of $221,733 which local school units were forced to bear beginning last year,” he said. “We’re also dealing with a number of what we call ‘unfunded mandates’ from the state … things like the design of new diploma standards, design and implementation of the new teacher-principal evaluation system, the Common Core standards implementation, and development of the Next Generation Science Standards.”
In light of a slightly improved overall financial situation and a small increase in enrollment, Johnson said the district was able to maintain professional staff at nearly the same level as 2013-14 with a net reduction of two teaching positions through attrition.
“Over the past six years we have reduced full-time equivalent staff numbers by about 50 positions, including 23.5 teachers and four administrators,” he said. “This year, which I actually would describe as a ‘good year,’ we still eliminated positions — two teaching positions district-wide and three support personnel.”
The referendum will be held Tuesday, June 10. Voters should contact their municipal offices for exact polling times and locations.
