SALEM – Voters in the Maine School Administrative District 58 towns will set the budget for the next fiscal year on Tuesday, May 28, at a meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. at Mt. Abram High School.
As proposed by the school board, the budget for fiscal year 2019-20 includes $9,758,214 in expenditures, including $17,620 for adult education. The K-12 budget, at $9.74 million, would represent an increase of $329,578 in expenditures over the current fiscal year, or 3.5 percent.
On the revenue side, the district would pick up an additional $192,000 in state subsidy, up to $3.44 million, with $4.3 million to be raised by the towns of Avon, Kingfield, Phillips and Strong. Another big component of the district’s revenue is the $1.4 million it is projected to receive for student tuition from Carrabassett Valley and the Unorganized Territories.
As proposed, the budget would result in $291,000 in additional local assessment – or 7.2 percent – apportioned between the four towns in accordance with their state valuation numbers. Specifically, Avon would see a $45,697 increase in its local assessment, or 9.4 percent; Kingfield would see an increase of $87,224, or 5.6 percent; Phillips would see an increase of $79,695, or 8.1 percent; and Strong would see an increase of $78,305, or 7.7 percent.
In addition to rising health insurance costs and negotiated staff salary increases, the budget includes an additional guidance position at the cost of roughly $65,000, as well as $10,000 to add a couple days of clerical support.
Directors have opted to utilize a multi-grade class at Strong next year, moving a teacher into a math coach position that will work throughout the district. That decision is budget-neutral, as the individual’s salary won’t change. Directors did increase the district’s contingency from $25,000 to $35,000 in order to be able to cover the cost of an ed tech if one became necessary to help teach that class.
The district-wide budget meeting is May 28 at 6 p.m. at Mt. Abram High School. The board’s budget will be presented to those in attendance as a series of cost center recommendations; members of the public will actually set the budget.
A validation vote in all four towns will be held on June 11. A ‘yes’ vote will confirm the budget while a ‘no’ vote will reject it, effectively restarting the process.
Those attending the May 28 budget meeting will also be presented with information about the Western Maine Regional Service Center. An offshoot of the preexisting Western Maine Education Collaborative, the service center would take on many of WMEC’s roles for MSAD 58 and the other nine districts. In joining a service center, MSAD 58 would recoup $33,000 in lost state subsidy. Joining the service center would not impact this year’s budget.
Those attending the district budget meeting will vote on whether or not MSAD 58 should join the service center.
