The budgetary two-step

To the editor:
    According to the new state statute all school budgets must go through a double approval process. First the budget is presented in a line item format to be voted on at the budget meeting. Once the budget is approved at the budget meeting a referendum vote is held on the question of whether to approve the action of the budget meeting. Until a successful referendum vote, both steps of this process must be repeated.
    Absentee ballots for the referendum are available at each town office. They may not be processed or counted by municipal clerks unless they are received after the conclusion of the budget meeting on May 29th and before the close of the poll for the budget validation referendum. Those envelopes received too early or too late will be marked “rejected”.
    For SAD 70 the date for this budget meeting is Thursday, May 29th at 7 p.m. There will be a district-wide budget meeting at the Hodgdon High School. At this meeting there will be a presentation of the school budget to the voters from the towns of Amity, Cary, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Linneus, Ludlow and New Limerick. Each warrant article will be placed before the voters for consideration. In order for attendees to vote, they must first check in with their town official upon entering the high school and verify that they are registered voters. Only registered voters from each town will be allowed to vote.
    After the budget is approved at the budget meeting, a referendum vote will be held on June 10th on the question of whether to approve or ratify the action on the budget meeting.
    The taxpayers need to understand that it is critical that we continue to provide our students with a quality education and still be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers. This has become increasingly difficult in these trying times, but the board has been able to do just that with this budget.
    Overall the budget increase is 3.47 percent. This was not an easy task considering fewer educational dollars flowing into the district due to state cutbacks and the EPS formula which is not small school friendly. With this in mind, the board was still able to put the budget together and maintain quality education for our students.
    Factors that influenced the budget were the enormous spike in fuel for our buses and heating oil for our buildings, and other consumer product hikes.
    Two other items in this budget are the purchase of a new bus, which the state will reimburse in the budget year 2009-2010,  and re-surfacing the gym floor at the high school.
    In order to keep our energy costs down the board decided to replace the doors in the schools in order to keep heat in the buildings. The board felt now was a good time to upgrade the lighting system with more efficient lights. Efficiency Maine was offering to double their incentives, thus reducing the cost of installing energy efficient lighting in all the buildings to help reduce electricity costs to the district.
    In the building of this budget, the board had to make some difficult decisions in order to present a fiscally responsible budget to the taxpayers. Programs that were either eliminated or reduced are Driver’s Education, split harvest break, one bus run, limited JV and Varsity sports travel, Ed Tech attendance at workshops and early release days, general supplies, dues and fees and advertising costs. Administrators gave up their raises and were reduced in the number of days they work during the school year in order to maintain the programs that are offered at our schools.
    When the new Regional School Unit (RSU) comes into existence in July 2009 the board felt that the schools, from a maintenance prospective, should be well maintained and energy efficient. With the new RSU your school maintenance might not be a top priority.
    With the help of the administrators and the teachers, the board was able to maintain the programs your schools currently have, as well as our outstanding quality of education. I would like to thank them for their sacrifices and assistance in the development of the budget. Also, thank you to our select men and women and the volunteers serving on the RSU4 committee.
Robert W. McDaniel
Superintendent