Voters living in the four towns that comprise Regional School Unit 38, the Maranacook Area Schools, can weigh in on the proposed $17.2 million budget at the Annual Budget Meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday at Maranacook Community High School.
The school board approved the proposed budget at its April 12 session. The budget proposed for the 2017-18 school year is almost $725,000 higher than the current year’s.
The warrant articles for the annual meeting are available on the district’s website in its annual report.
The proposed budget requires the four towns in the district to contribute a total of just over $13 million.
That amount breaks down as $4 million from Manchester, $3.1 million from Mount Vernon, $3.6 million from Readfield and almost $2.2 million from Wayne.
The proposed budget shows that all the towns will be paying more than the current year because the local dollars needed to support the budget are 6.84 percent higher.
However, Terri Watson, chairwoman of the school board, said Thursday that increase might be less if the state comes through with a higher subsidy figure.
“The Legislature has yet to decide whether to give schools additional funding,” she said. “The important thing about that is that if they give us additional funding, we voted that it’s money we won’t charge the towns.”
One of the warrant articles “authorizes the school board to use the entire additional state subsidy to reduce local assessments.”
That option was not available in previous years, Watson said.
Alternatively, the board could have used any additional funds for items not yet included in the budget and applied it to the following year.
The final state subsidy numbers should be in well before the towns set their property tax rate for the year, so that could be adjusted accordingly.
Watson said there were no public comments offered on the proposed budget and that enough money is built into the budget so students will not be charged for participating in athletic or co-curricular activities. They had been charged up until the current year. At the 2016 annual meeting, that change was requested.
The district has 574 children in elementary schools, 280 at Maranacook Middle School, and 366 at Maranacook High School, according to figures from January of this year.
Brigette Williams, finance manager for the district, said Thursday the proposed budget does not eliminate any current positions and adds 11/2 teaching positions and just under two full-time ed tech positions.
If the budget gets approved at the district-wide meeting, then it goes to a budget validation referendum at the individual towns on June 13.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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