Residents approve nearly $10M for SAD 27

FORT KENT – About 45 residents of SAD 27’s seven member towns approved on Wednesday night an education budget calling for expenditures of $9,928,497.

Despite an increase of $341,997 over the present budget, the five articles raising funds passed without one question being asked in a period of just over three minutes. Jack Norris’ job as moderator of the session, held at Community High School, was relatively easy.

In local property taxes, the increase is $152,957.

The proposed budget, according to Superintendent Sandra Bernstein, was cut by $700,000 from the original document of requests and proposals. She said most of the cuts were in capital projects for work on roofs and driveways.

The seven-town district composed of Fort Kent, Eagle Lake, St. Francis, Wallagrass, New Canada, Winterville and St. John Plantation, gets 56 percent of its cost of education from the state.

The state’s share of the approved budget is $7,555,529.

The towns pay 33 percent of the budget through property taxes and the remaining 11 percent comes from tuition and fees.

Cecilia Pinter, chairwoman of the 12-person board of directors for SAD 27, said salaries and benefits for employees of the district amount to 80 percent of the budget.

“Most of the increase you see in the budget is for adjustments in salaries and benefits,” she told residents before they voted.

In a further breakdown, Pinter said 40 percent of the budget is allocated for elementary education, 23 percent is for secondary education, 15 percent is for special education, 4 percent is for vocational education and 18 percent is for transportation, school lunch and other services.