February 11, 2025
Archive

SAD 37 budget to go to referendum vote

HARRINGTON – Close to 150 residents of SAD 37’s six communities met Wednesday night and overwhelmingly approved the proposed $8.57 million education budget for 2008-09. The proposal will now be the subject of a May 27 referendum vote in each town.

District Superintendent David Beal explained that final passage of the budget will be determined by a majority of votes in the district as a whole, not by a division of towns – Milbridge, Harrington, Cherryfield, Columbia, Columbia Falls and Addison.

He said the 4.58 percent increase in the proposed budget was necessitated in part by the “drying up” of a number of grants the system does not expect to receive this year. In addition, the annual report stated that some increases are due to negotiated salaries and benefits like workers compensation and sick leave as well as areas that had surpluses in former years that have now been depleted.

While emphasizing that he anticipates no staff reductions, Beal said in an interview that many of the state and federal reductions have been in “grants for professional development fees and dues.” In addition, transitional funds awarded by the state to towns in the past few years to comply with district funding changes are no longer available.

Some of the new budget’s specific items were surprising to audience members. For example, money for student transportation went down despite high gas prices because, Beal said, “in previous years we overbudgeted.” Conversely, snowplowing costs increased by up to 200 percent, and expenses for heating the six school buildings increased between 13 and 62 percent because of the surge in the cost of oil. The amount needed for building maintenance supplies rose by about 650 percent because, Beal said, “most of those are petroleum-based.”

The snowplowing budget for the district’s six schools rose nearly $29,000 to $54,500 from last year’s $25,676. Building maintenance supplies funding is up $1,300 to $1,500 from last year’s $200. The budgeted amount for heating oil increased by $30,000 to $178,000 from last year’s $147,000.

The district as a whole must raise $3.3 million to receive the state’s $2.87 million contribution figured from the Essential Programs and Services formula. The board’s budget includes another $1.7 million to meet students’ needs, and so the district must raise approximately $5 million to meet the budget. Addison will need to raise $1.25 million, a 4.8 percent increase over last year. Cherryfield will need to raise $787,807, a 1.4 percent increase. Columbia will need to raise $342,577, a 10 percent increase. Columbia Falls will need to raise $341,929, a 5.48 percent increase. Harrington will need to raise $903,491, a 4.5 percent increase. Milbridge will need to raise $1.61 million, a 5 percent increase.

Voters had to cast a secret ballot on the additional $1.7 million because the school consolidation law requires a separate vote on funds that exceed the parameters of the Essential Programs and Services guidelines. The funds are needed, according to the board’s report, to keep class sizes down and for transportation costs not allowed under EPS.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like