SAD 67 budget meetings scheduled District voters to consider $8.7 million proposal at June 19 referendum

LINCOLN – Residents of Chester, Lincoln and Mattawamkeag will learn more about SAD 67’s proposed $8.7 million budget during informational meetings next month.

The meetings are designed to provide district voters with information before they decide the fate of the budget proposal during a daylong referendum vote on Tuesday, June 19.

Budget meetings will be held at 6 p.m. in the following communities: Mattawamkeag, Tuesday, June 5, in the municipal building; Lincoln, Wednesday, June 6, in the high school library; and Chester, Thursday, June 7, at the Marianne Municipal Building.

The school budget proposal of $8,793,390.83 represents an increase of $433,117.57, or 5.18 percent, compared with last year. Proposed from local taxes is $4,007,836.11, an increase of $434,153.39, or 12.15 percent, compared with last year.

“We tried to bring this budget in as low as we possibly could without damaging student programs,” said Superintendent Fred Woodman. “There is no fluff in this budget,” he said.

The school district will receive an additional $124,432 in state subsidy, but its tuition revenues and balances total $168,419 less than last year. In addition, Woodman said the district’s fixed costs have increased by more than $470,000. “This hurts,” he said.

Woodman said the budget proposal included cutting 21/2 positions. A fifth-grade position was cut because of slightly smaller class sizes. “We would like to have it but we know we can’t afford it,” he said. A fourth-grade teaching position won’t be filled as the result of a retirement. He said there would be a slight increase in pupil-teacher ratios.

Half of the facilities coordinator position was cut, saving the district $15,000. Woodman said the current coordinator will work on a per diem basis four weeks in the summer and from November 1 to May 1.

“We are deferring a lot of things for a year,” he said. “We feel we have to be a good neighbor to all of the businesses and residents in the district. Everyone is taking the same fixed-costs hits that we are,” he said in referring to higher health care costs and higher electricity and fuel costs.

One of the largest budget increases is for health care costs, which will go from $758,421 to $905,535. It represents an increase of $147,114. Electricity will rise from $122,100 to $157,700. Fuel oil will increase from $71,500 to $105,800 and gasoline will go from $38,500 to $44,500.

Woodman said the school district would purchase fewer textbooks during the next fiscal year and will do fewer projects in its five-year maintenance plan.

He said the budget includes funds for negotiated salary increases, which average between 3 percent and 4 percent for teachers, bus drivers, support staff and custodians. Administrators will receive a 2.5 percent pay increase.

School officials cut more than $500,000 from the initial budget proposal, which reduced the local increase to taxpayers from 26.38 percent to 12.15 percent.

Proposed school assessments are: Chester, $504,987.35, an increase of $74,715.95; Mattawamkeag, $371,526.41, an increase of $22,020.24; and Lincoln, $3,131,322.35, an increase of $337,417.20.