Citizens give initial nod to $22.9M SAD 1 plan
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — At last Wednesday night’s district budget meeting, residents gave their initial approval of SAD 1’s $22,960,050 budget for 2012-13. Step two of the budget process was a budget validation referendum that was held yesterday in Presque Isle, Mapleton, Chapman, Castle Hill and Westfield. Results of the budget referendum vote were not known as of presstime.
Superintendent Gehrig Johnson told residents gathered for the May 9 district budget meeting that the proposed budget represented “no change” from 2011-12.
“If this proposal is approved, we will reduce the local K-12 education mil rate based on state property valuations and on our July 1-June 30 fiscal year from 9.87 to 9.53 mills for district municipalities,” he said. “Because state valuations have risen year over year by unequal rates for our five municipal members, two municipalities — Mapleton and Westfield — will see small decreases in the school tax, while the other three municipalities will see slight increases, but there will be no change in the overall total SAD 1 tax.
“Loss of state funding continues to present a substantial challenge for us,” said Johnson. “Next year we will suffer a loss of $624,750 in state aid. Since state aid to SAD 1 crested in 2008-09 at about $14.5 million, we have dealt with annual reductions to the point where next year’s subsidy is $2.5 million or 17 percent less than it was just four years ago. In addition, we will lose $221,833 in federal Jobs Bill funds for combined revenue losses of $846,583.”
Johnson said that despite the large losses of aid, the district was presenting a budget “that keeps programming intact for another year.”
“We will be eliminating six teaching positions and five support positions through attrition to help reduce expenses,” he said. “We will also be tapping some of the cash reserves we have set aside in recent years to help address the continuing budget hurdles we — and all school units in Maine — will continue to face not only next year but for the foreseeable future.
“All of us appreciate your continued support of our schools,” said Johnson. “We will strive to maintain our tradition of cost-effective excellence in all of our programs and schools.”
After electing Mike MacPherson as moderator to preside over the district budget meeting (Article 1), residents approved the following items:
• (Article 2) $8,469,770 for Regular Instruction.
• (Article 3) $2,578,634 for Special Education.
• (Article 4) $1,490,730 for Career & Technical Education.
• (Article 5) $876,653 for Other Instruction.
• (Article 6) $1,811,762 for Student & Staff Support.
• (Article 7) $517,847 for System Administration.
• (Article 8) $1,096,099 for School Administration.
• (Article 9) $1,740,864 for Transportation and Buses.
• (Article 10) $3,256,965 for Facilities Maintenance.
• (Article 11) $693,290 for Debt Service and Other Commitments.
• (Article 12) $200,000 for All Other Expenditures including School Lunch.
• (Article 13) $5,905,535.50 in local tax dollars to receive all of the available state support for education.
• (Article 14) $435,860.72 for the annual payments on debt service previously approved by the legislative body for non-state funded school construction projects, non-state-funded portions of school construction projects and minor capital projects, in addition to the funds appropriated as the local share of the school administrative unit’s contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre-kindergarten to grade 12.
• (Article 15) $878,733.78 in additional local funds, which exceeds the state’s Essential Programs and Services allocation model by $476,796.48. A written ballot was required for this article. It was unanimously approved 88-1.
• (Article 16) $22,732,614 for the board of school directors to expend for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012 and ending June 30, 2013 from the school administrative unit’s contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre-kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act, unexpended balances, tuition receipts, state subsidy, and other receipts for the support of schools.
• (Article 17) Appropriate $227,436 for Adult Education and raise $94,990 as the local share, with authorization to expend any additional, incidental, or miscellaneous receipts in and for the well being of the adult education program.
Results of the budget referendum vote will be reported in next week’s issue of The Star-Herald.
