MADAWASKA, Maine — After Madawaska voters shot down the town’s education budget last month, the school committee reduced expenses by nearly $200,000 and increased revenues during a July 2 workshop.
Overall, the reduced budget’s tax impact will come close to what it was for the previous year. The budget rejected by voters last month was $5,050,324 and included a $236,059 increase over the previous budget. The new budget is $4,814,265 with a $39,644 increase.
Madawaska is one of several school districts in Aroostook County and throughout the state to have voters reject its its budget this year. The budget for MSAD 27 — which encompasses Fort Kent, Wallagrass, New Canada, St. Francis and St. John — was also rejected by voters last month.
The newly proposed budget includes $184,865 in cuts. One of the larger reductions is $115,090 in salary from an administrator’s retirement. The position will be filled on a part-time basis with Fort Kent’s technology director for $55,525.
Social work was cut by $41,510 by reducing contracted social work services to two days a week. The budget also includes a $29,445 reduction in technology requests.
Officials found an estimated $11,550 in additional revenues through introducing pay-to-play athletics, in which student athletes would pay $25 per sport, with a $50 cap, saving students who participate in all three available sports $25.
Superintendent Ben Sirois said part of the reasoning behind this decision is that the United States is the only country in which schools sponsor their athletic programs, adding that students just across the border in Edmundston all have to pay to participate in sports. The fee is just for athletics, because other extracurricular activities are not nearly as expensive.
In MSAD 27 in Fort Kent, where Sirois is also superintendent, he has already received offers from parents to help pay for students who might not be able to afford to participate. He anticipates the same happening in Madawaska, he said.
“If we have some students that cannot afford to play because of their family dynamic, we’re not going to deny anyone. We’ll find a way,” he said.
Sirois has been talking to coaches about fundraising activities like bottle drives, which would serve as team-building activities while helping to offset these costs.
Madawaska can not realistically cut much more from its school budget, he said. He has heard people in the community talk about possibly closing one school in the region to save taxpayers money, but this would not result in permanent cost savings for residents.
Sirois and Finance Director Lucie Tabor crunched the numbers to see roughly what savings would occur if one of the region’s schools closed. They found it would likely give taxpayers a one-time savings of about $750,000, he said.
Since the district would need to take care of the same number of students and employ the same staff, much of the same annual costs would remain.
This was also the case in MSAD 33, which includes Wisdom/Middle High School in St. Agatha, Sirois said. He is also MSAD 33’s superintendent.
MSAD 33 once included Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville, but this building burned down in 2021. The fire forced the district to consolidate students and staff under one roof.
“We closed down Dr. Levesque,” Sirois said. “We moved them all to Wisdom, but the budget didn’t go down because we still have the same people that you need to take care of these kids.”
With the new cuts approved, the budget will once again need to go through two stages of voter approval. Another hearing is slated at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 24, at the Madawaska High School gymnasium.
If the budget passes then, voters will give it final approval during an Aug. 19 referendum.
