NEWPORT – SAD 48 taxpayers should see a cut in the six district towns’ assessments to fund education this year, Superintendent William Braun said this week.

“There should be a 6 percent across-the-board reduction in what we tax the towns,” Braun said.

The superintendent said all calculations are preliminary as the district is awaiting final numbers from the Maine Department of Education, and the school budget is being fine-tuned. “We are currently at a 3.4 percent increase and we want to drop down to 3 percent,” he said.

SAD 48’s state subsidy likely will increase by more than $782,000, according to preliminary figures provided by the state to SAD 48 on Feb. 1, business manager Kelley Carter said Tuesday.

Last year, the district received $9,593,416 in state subsidy. This year’s preliminary subsidy is $10,376,027. Carter said that depending on final figures, this could mean a reduction in the local tax assessment of 6 percent to 8 percent.

Last year’s budget of $17,009,587 still is being reviewed, he said, but the goal appears to be a 3 percent increase.

Braun added that a search already has begun and is gaining interested applicants to replace Nokomis Regional High School Principal Dan Mills who is retiring in July. The high school has more than 750 students from eight communities, and the position has a salary in the mid-$70,000 range, he said.

Meanwhile, Braun said the aging high school will be in need of repairs in the future. “We have some dramatic needs,” he said, adding that the school board is assessing those needs.

Braun said he has heard some criticism of the school board’s recent decision to allow a football team to be created at Nokomis Regional High School. He said it was important for area residents to know that the entire cost of the program is being funded by volunteer donations, and that a recent advertisement for a head coach was a control issue, not to be funded by SAD 48.

“We need to have some control,” Braun said. “This person needs a background check, fingerprinting.”

Braun added that a $2,500 appropriation to the football program did not come from educational funds but was made by the school board from their individual salaries as board members.