FARMINGTON – Residents of the Regional School Unit 9 towns will have an opportunity to be heard on a proposed $37.3 million budget Tuesday evening at the high school.
The meeting is an opportunity for residents to ask questions or comment on proposed expenditures for the next fiscal year, prior to the school board formally voting on the budget at a future meeting. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the forum at the Mt. Blue Campus.
As currently proposed, the $37,313,953 budget would represent an increase of $1.77 million or 4.97 percent over the current fiscal year. The majority of the increase would be paid for by the state, as revenues increase by $1.07 million to $22.1 million in total. As a result, the budget’s impact on local tax assessments would be an increase of 1.67 percent, totaling assessment increases in eight towns and assessment decreases in Weld and Wilton.
One of the biggest reasons for the the $1 million-plus increase to state funding is RSU 9’s climbing enrollment, with an extra 59 students bringing additional funding into a district that added 118 students in the previous two years.
The budget includes 2.5 percent increases in salary for teachers and 5 percent for support staff. Retirement costs are mostly flat, at .19 percent, while health insurance figures currently plugged into the budget include an 8.8 percent increase. The actual health insurance figure may be announced as early as Tuesday evening. Each 1 percent of increase represents roughly $39,000 in new expenditures for the district.
Increases in the budget include adding a currently-active Cape Cod Hill School teaching position to the budget and shifting a W.G. Mallett School teacher out of a class-size reduction grant and into the regular budget. Other increases include a half-time social worker position at Mt. Blue High School, a two-day-a-week nurse at W.G. Mallett, increasing a secretary position at Mt. Blue Middle School to full time and a behavioral ed tech interventionist and a quarter-time social worker at Cape Cod Hill School.
The budget also includes a reformation of the Pathway for All Learners program at the grade 3 to 5 level, hiring a social worker and a Board Certified Behavior Specialist, instead of the previously envisioned Special Education teacher and three ed techs. Instead of transporting students to a central location like the K to 2 program, the grade 3 to 5 program would bring services to students in their specific schools.
Two buses would be purchased if the budget were approved as presented. The combined cost to the district for both buses would be $51,000 on a $206,000 purchase thanks to the Volkswagen emissions scandal settlement, which would pay the bulk of the cost.
The budget also includes $20,000 to cover the cost of a five-year strategic plan for the district.
More information on the budget can be found here by clicking on the “Mt. Blue RSD Budget Information 2019-2020” link. This includes budget presentations and documents, as well as video from the budget meetings.
The projected date to set the budget recommendation at the board level would be Tuesday, April 23. The district-wide budget meeting is currently scheduled for May 28, while the accompanying referendum vote would be June 11.
