Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – The SAD 1 board of directors adopted a 2009-10 budget of $22,875,939 at its May 20 meeting – $7,511,580 of which would be passed on to property tax payers – and now the proposed funding package will go to district voters. The district budget meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 3 at the Presque Isle High School auditorium.
“For 2009-10, we are presenting a budget proposal that represents a 2 percent overall increase over 2008-09,” said Superintendent Gehrig Johnson. “For the third year in a row, we will hold the local K-12 education mill rate of 11.6 mills for district municipalities. Because state valuations have risen year-over-year by an average of about 12 percent for our five municipal members, we will be asking for a corresponding increase in local property tax dollars.
“As is the case for all school units, salaries and benefits represent the lion’s share – about 73 percent – of our budget. For next year, we have budgeted for a cost-of-living wage increase for all of our employees,” he said. “For the first time in a decade, however, there will be no increase in the monthly medical insurance premiums charged by our insurer. We suspect that this relief from the usual double digit annual percent increase is temporary.”
SAD 1 will be losing almost $316,000 in state funding next year due to an overall reduction in state support for schools.
“The loss will be partially offset by $233,000 in federal stabilization funds. Stabilization funding will expire at the end of next year,” said Johnson. “We are being very careful not to allocate this short-term federal resource to continuing programs, especially in light of the continuing difficult economic times we are likely to face for the foreseeable future.”
A Management Services Agreement the district has with the Limestone School Department for transportation and custodial services is set to expire as of June 30, 2009. Since Limestone has joined other area schools to form a Regional School Unit (RSU), its transportation and custodial needs will be met internally.
A similar management agreement with the Bridgewater School Department will also be nullified at the end of the current school year as the Bridgewater Grammar School is set to close July 1.
In total, nine positions associated with services provided to the Limestone and Bridgewater School Departments will be eliminated which will reduce SAD 1’s budget by $346,420.
Along with the nine positions to be cut from the Limestone and Bridgewater agreements, the district plans to eliminate the district communications director position, as well as one special education secretary for a combined total staff reduction of $426,650.
“We’ve tried to make the staff cuts so that they don’t directly impact the students,” said Johnson.
Another budget highlight includes a major maintenance project at Zippel Elementary School to complete the replacement of walls and windows ($125,000).
Each municipality that comprises the district has been assessed the following amounts: Castle Hill is expected to pay $214,600, Chapman, $234,900; Mapleton, $1,083,440; Presque Isle, $5,693,860; and Westfield, $284,780. These amounts include the local allocation for adult education.
Again this year, district budget approval requires a two-step process. In addition to a district-wide budget meeting, districts are required to hold a budget validation referendum in each of SAD 1’s five municipalities. The district meeting will be held June 3, while the validation referendum is scheduled for June 9.
