HODGDON – Voters at the SAD 70 annual meeting overwhelmingly approved the 2001-02 budget of $4.7 million, about $390,000 more than last year.

When the budget was adopted by the school board two weeks ago, there was some concern that it might be rejected by residents who were concerned about salaries for teachers and administrators being too high.

In anticipation of a large crowd last week, about 250 chairs were set out in the gymnasium at Hodgdon High School. Only a small portion of them was needed, however, with about 50 people attending the 11/2-hour session.

“I guess it’s better to plan for more and get less than it is to plan for less and get more,” said meeting moderator Paul Harrison of New Limerick, who also serves as the school board representative from that town.

With that, Harrison announced some good news: The budget was about $41,000 less than what the board initially had approved, after the district was able to garner more state education aid for its prekindergarten program.

The savings mean the assessment to district towns will increase by $108,573, rather than the $150,000 that had been expected.

As such, assessments to district towns, which still will be more than last year because of a continued decline in enrollment and increased property valuations, will be less than had been predicted. The tax rate for education is 10.8 mills.

Total assessments by town are: Amity, $94,290, up $5,971; Cary Plantation, $66,541, up $940; Haynesville, $77,001, up $2,797; Hodgdon, $310,620, up $14,071; Linneus, $319,628, up $19,181; Ludlow, $111,434, up $6,849; and New Limerick, $473,340, up $58,763.

In preparing the budget, the board cut a half-day kindergarten and a fifth-grade position at the SAD 70 Elementary School and a half-time English position at the high school.

Fifty-three seniors will graduate from high school this year. There will be 35 new pupils in kindergarten next year, and 25 in the pre-kindergarten program. “The numbers are dropping off dramatically and that means we’ll be cutting more teachers as that works up through the grades,” Harrison said.

Warrant articles approved at the annual meeting are: regional vocational budget, $1,098,772, local share $231,511; regional vocational budget for adult education, $27,712, local share, $2,994; foundation allocation $4,284,981, local share $1,368,364; SAD 70 adult education, $7,500; additional funds to be raised by district without state aid, $73,997.

Voters also authorized district officials to use $50,000 in Medicare reimbursement money to set up a contingency fund for unanticipated expense.

Superintendent Deborah Stewart explained that the district preferred to keep money separate from the regular operating budget, since it is never known from year to year if the funds will be available.

“We don’t use it for the regular budget because we’re afraid we’ll get hooked on it,” she said.

In past years, the extra money has been used to help pay for a van for special education pupils, textbooks and staff training, she said.