September 22, 2024
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SAD 22 to consider $17.6 million budget

HAMPDEN – The SAD 22 board of directors will consider a $17.6 million budget, 4.87 percent higher than last year’s, when it meets tonight.

The proposal includes $61,000 to phase in all-day kindergarten at Newburgh Elementary School, Smith School in Winterport and McGraw School in Hampden.

Unanimously endorsed by the board’s budget committee, the plan calls for a local property tax assessment of $7.2 million, an increase of 3.18 percent.

Divided up among the district’s three towns, the assessments would be:

. Hampden, $4.46 million, a 2.37 percent increase over last year;

. Newburgh, $802,810, a 3.38 percent increase;

. Winterport, $1.99 million, a 4.95 percent increase.

Public forums will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, June 3, at Samuel Wagner Middle School in Winterport; 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, at Newburgh Elementary School; and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 5, at Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden.

Superintendent Rick Lyons said most of the proposed increase is due to hikes in salaries and health insurance rates. The rest can be chalked up to the new kindergarten program, higher costs for fuel and utilities and for property and casualty insurance, and the purchase of a portable classroom at Hampden Academy.

Lyons called the proposed local increase “extremely reasonable.” He said that over the last five years the district’s budget has increased an average of 3.3 percent, about the same as inflation.

The district also was “fortunate” to receive a $10 million state allocation, $592,425 higher than last year, Lyons said.

Towns will vote on the budget June 11.


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