Residents to vote on $6.1 million SAD 20 budget
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD — Residents in Fort Fairfield are encouraged to attend tomorrow night’s public budget hearing where they will vote on SAD 20’s proposed 2012-13 budget of $6,164,394.
According to Superintendent Marc Gendron, SAD 20 has been working very hard to provide the best educational opportunity for the students of Fort Fairfield while “economizing efforts to limit the tax burden on the citizens of our district.”
“In the last five years, our local mils raised for education is down 9.85 percent, town valuation is up 19.6 percent, and student count as of April 1, 2012 is up 2.3 percent,” said Gendron. “In the last seven years, including the proposed 2012-13 budget, SAD 20 will have requested an average annual increase of 1.29 percent. Every penny is appreciated.
“Our current budget proposal is our best effort to meet the needs of our students for the least total cost possible,” he said. “The school board of SAD 20 has voted unanimously to move forward with this budget, but the citizens of Fort Fairfield will have the final say on whether this budget is approved at the district budget hearing.
The district is seeking a local increase of $68,492.
“That increase is mostly due to the reduction of carryover funds applied to this fiscal budget,” said Gendron. “There is some concern about the increase in local funds, but over a long period of time, there have been five or six years where there was zero or extremely minimal increases.
“Though there’s been some concern,” he said, “overall the budget support has been fantastic.”
Gendron also noted that:
• In the last four years, SAD 20 has cut $369,805 from its budget.
• In the past 12 years, 20 positions district-wide including 13 at the middle/high school have been eliminated.
• In the last two years, the district saved $170,000 by forming an AOS for the two years that penalties for non-compliance were in effect.
• From 2009 to 2012, when state and Medicare reimbursements dropped by $369,252, SAD 20 received $96,492 in additional local funds. The difference was primarily made up by budget cuts and use of reserve funds.
“The proposed 2012-13 budget reflects a 2.16 percent increase,” said Gendron. “That increase is attributed to an increase in operating costs, salaries and things like that.”
Gendron said it’s important to note that the middle/high school, which was on the U.S. News and World Report’s list of the best high schools in Maine in 2010, was again named to the list for 2012.
“In addition, this year our elementary school was on the most improved list of schools in Maine based on the most recent NECAP scores,” he said. “We were ranked 48th out of 227 schools and went up 80 places from last year’s results.”
The district budget hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 17 at Fort Fairfield Middle/High School.
