Machias budget to get hearing

MACHIAS – The proposed Machias school budget goes to public hearing next week, with a $63,000 increase in local funds, despite a drop in proposed expenditures.

The total 2003 budget is $3,978,827, with $1,282,871 to come from taxation. The 2002 school budget was $3,979,715 – 2 percent higher than proposed expenditures for 2003.

The public hearing on the budget will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, in the Machias Memorial High School cafeteria. The budget will go to referendum vote during the first day of the Machias annual town meeting on Aug. 19 and 20.

The increase in local taxes reflects a drop in revenues, including $44,684 less in state aid to education, Superintendent Bruce Sawyer said Thursday.

Anticipated tuition revenues for out-of-town pupils who attend the Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School also are down, from $520,260 in 2002 to $423,150 in the 2003 budget.

“We didn’t receive as much money in elementary tuition this year,” Sawyer said.

In 2002, the school system budgeted $520,260 in revenues for elementary school tuition. As of June 4, those payments were only $331,067.

Tuition for students from other Union 102 towns who attend Machias Memorial High School is expected to increase, up from the $376,740 that was budgeted in 2002 to $411,400 in the proposed 2003 budget.

Sawyer said the proposed budget reflects a decrease in the amount budgeted for special education at both Rose M. Gaffney and Machias Memorial schools.

Proposed special education expenditures at the high school are down from $134,246 to $116,521. The 2003 budget for special education at the elementary school is $258,698, down from $316,314 in 2002.

Sawyer said the proposed 2003 budget reflects salary increases for nonunion employees that range from 3.5 percent to 5 percent.

The school board settled its contract with teachers last year, and teacher salary increases – including step increases for years of service – range from 5.6 percent for teachers at the lower end of the scale to 1.3 percent to the teacher with the most years of service, he said.

The contract agreement includes a 1.84 percent increase in the base, bringing the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree to $21,850, Sawyer said.

The superintendent said the 2003 budget reflects the first full year’s payment on the $1 million interest-free loan the Machias school system received from the state revolving loan fund for air quality improvements at the Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School. That payment is budgeted at $37,590.

The budget also reflects a $26,375 payment on the eight-year $246,500 loan the town of Machias provided for the project.