WOODLAND, Maine — Roughly a dozen residents attended a June 18 town meeting in Woodland and voted forward a $2,252,111.25 school budget, which is up 191,702.46 from last year’s budget of $2,060,408.79.
The budget includes a $53,189 increase in K-8 instruction; a $24,666 increase in transportation; a $22,709 increase in the operating budget; and $13,903 in Maintenance. Additionally, the state only provided Woodland with $1,060,407.15 this year whereas last year the school received $1,268,324.69 in state revenues.
Roughly a dozen Woodland residents attended a June 18 town meeting in which the 2019-20 school budget was approved.
(Chris Bouchard)
The budget, however, will not require more taxpayer funding than last year, as school officials set aside extra money in the fund balance, or reserve account, to offset additional expenses.
While the local and additional local costs are slightly different this year, both add up to $632,084.10. Last year local and additional local allocation were $506.770.50 and $125,313.60, respectively, and this year they are $491,832 and $140,252.10. Local allocation is what a municipality needs to raise in order to receive state funding and additional local is an amount that needs to be raised beyond this requirement.
To make up for the additional expenses the school administration added $304,245 from the fund balance to the budget this year. For comparison, the school only needed to allocate $7,000 from this account last year.
The meeting lasted just under 15 minutes, with residents voting forward all 16 articles on the warrant.
