RSU 50 reviews school budget

STACYVILLE, Maine — The RSU 50 school board held a workshop Monday evening to discuss the 2012-13 budget. And while overall spending is up about 2 percent, the amount of local dollars needed to fund the budget is down from last year.
    Board members received a 40-page budget document to review. No action was taken at Monday evening’s workshop. The RSU 50 board is expected to approve the school budget at its next regular meeting, scheduled for Monday, May 14. A public hearing would then be held to allow members of the public to comment on the budget before it goes to referendum in June.
As presented, the RSU 50 budget of $9,261,281 is up $185,565 (about 2 percent) over the previous year. RSU 50 interim Superintendent John Doe said the budget represented the district’s best efforts to maintain current programs, while keeping costs to a minimum.
RSU 50 is a consolidated school district between SAD 25 and CSD 9. It comprises the communities of Crystal, Dyer Brook, Hersey, Island Falls, Merrill, Moro, Mt. Chase, Oakfield, Patten, Sherman, Smyrna and Stacyville.
Unlike last year, RSU 50 will receive more money from the state, but it will also cost more local dollars to receive that funding. According to the Essential Programs and Services allocation, RSU 50 will receive $4,913,555 in state money, which is an increase of $168,606 (3.55 percent) from the previous year. To receive those funds, the district must raise $2,436,589 in required local dollars. That figure marks an increase of $49,810 (2.1 percent).
However, because RSU 50 is spending more than the state says should be needed to provide services to its students, additional local dollars must be raised. The additional local is $1,089,067, which is a decrease over last year’s figure of $1,554,918.
“All the figures presented to you come directly from the state,” Doe said. “We don’t have any control over that. The control you have is how much additional local (dollars) you want to spend.”
Enrollment has remained relatively stable in the two districts, Doe added.
“We went through every single grade to see what the student-teacher ratio was like,” Doe said. “We really looked at every avenue.”
Increases in special education costs are among the driving forces for the hike in spending. Two new teaching positions (kindergarten and sixth-grade) were added this year due to enrollment. A bus purchase was also taken out of the budget. To help lessen the tax burden, the district plans to carry forward $450,000 from the current budget.
Changes in the town’s valuations will play a big role in how the proposed budget will affect each of the communities. For example, Stacyville saw a major change in its town valuation and as such will see a large decrease in its share this year, while other towns would see an increase.
No further reductions were suggested during Monday’s budget workshop session.
“The way we need to approach this for the communities that are seeing increases, like Sherman, Crystal, Dyer Brook is that the increase is based more on valuation,” said board member Stephen Walker. “We are not trying to single them out and people need to understand that.”
He added some of the communities that are seeing a decrease this year actually had increases the previous year.
“Yes our overall budget is up, but we have managed to trim so much that we are asking for $108,000 less in local additional,” board member Scot Walker said. “The part that is up is the part that we have the least control over — Special Education. It is what it is.”
Some board members expressed concerns on how the public would react to the budget, particularly those that will be seeing an increase in their tax bills.
“If there are those in the public that are against this budget and want to vote it down, we ask them to please attend the public hearing and see what we are up against,” board chairman Philip Knowles said. “In my opinion, if you are going to vote it down, you need to participate in it.”