Meeting moderator Chris Johnson (left) calls on a voter as Superintendent Howard Tuttle looks on during the RSU 12 budget meeting in Chelsea Wednesday, May 21. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Voters from RSU 12’s member towns overwhelmingly approved a $28.6 million budget as presented during the district’s annual budget meeting at Chelsea Elementary School on Wednesday, May 21.
As approved, the budget totals $28,640,726.82, an increase of $1,406,229.84 or 5.16% from last year.
Approval at the May 21 meeting sets the budget up for a validation referendum on Tuesday, June 10.
After voters approved articles one and two individually – authorizing RSU 12 to expend $14,501,447.69 for regular education, an increase of $553,644.06 or 3.97%; and $6,121,421.68 for special education, an increase of $784,684.21 or 14.70% – the body voted to combine spending articles three through 11, and ultimately passed all as presented.
Before voting began, RSU 12 Superintendent Howard “Howie” Tuttle provided a brief budget overview, reprising the program he had previously delivered to town officials in Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Westport Island, Whitefield, and Windsor.
According to Tuttle, the bulk of the increases across the budget relate to rising tuition costs. There are parts of every budget the RSU 12 Board of Directors can control, like staffing and insurance costs, and parts the board can’t control, like tuition costs, Tuttle said. The portion of the budget the board controls is down $53,000.
“If everything the board can control is decreasing, then why is this budget increasing?” Tuttle said. “Well, it’s all the things we can’t control, and so we have seen pretty significant increase in high school tuition this year. It’s the third year in a row where we’ve seen 6% increases in high school tuition, and we just need to pay the bill.”
On the revenue side, property values have increased across the district, resulting in a corresponding decrease in state subsidy, Tuttle said.
Somerville resident and Tax Collector Jon Amirault pushed Tuttle and the RSU 12 board for a completed audit, pointing out a recent, complete audit is required by state law.
Tuttle said the most recent completed audit was for the 2022 fiscal year, and the audit for fiscal year 2023 is ongoing.
According to Tuttle, the lack of qualified auditors is an industry problem and RSU 12 is just one of a number of school districts that is behind schedule. Every month, the school district sends a request for an extension to the state and every month an extension is granted, Tuttle said.
“Right now, auditors for school systems seem to be a major problem,” Tuttle said. “We’re not the only school system that cannot seem to get audits done on time, and so our auditor is completely overwhelmed, and the finance committee is completely frustrated, and that’s where we’re at right now.”
Pressed as to how hard the administration worked to find an auditor, Tuttle said the district sent out a request for bids and received one response, and that was from the district’s current auditor. In any event, a new auditor would have to start the process anew, further delaying the audit’s completion, he said.
“How do we know any of these numbers mean anything?” Amirault said. “If nobody’s looking at the checkbook and produced a balanced audit in three years, it’s slightly worrying.”
“Well, we have a finance committee that meets monthly and goes over the numbers,” Tuttle said. “We have warrants. Everyone’s keeping an eye on the numbers. So, yeah, it’d be nice, I agree with you; it would be nice to have an audit we can put forward, to give the taxpayers faith in what we’re doing.”
Westport Island representative to the RSU 12 Board of Directors
Richard Devries, Westport Islands representative on the RSU 12 Board of Directors, listens to a comment from Somerville Select Board member Kathryn Jennings during the RSU 12 budget meeting in Chelsea on Wednesday, May 21. Saying budgets need to conform to what taxpayers can afford to pay, Jennings urged taxpayers to get involved in the budgeting process. (Sherwood Olin photo)
RSU 12 board member Russell Gates, of Somerville, said the current auditor, the finance committee, school officials, and RSU 12’s administration are all keeping an eye on the budget figures. If something were askew, it would be “a red flag,” Gates said.
“We know, as the finance committee, where every dollar is,” Gates said. “We can make projections based on what we see for costs going on. So we feel very comfortable with this budget.”
The budget approved by the voters last week includes expected revenues totaling total $12,529,210.64, a decrease of $46,828.89 or 0.37%.
Spending articles approved included $157,658.05 for other instruction, an increase of $13,654.12 or 9.48% and $1,308,583.16 for student and staff support, an increase of $76,121.84 or 6.18%.
Voters approved $761,943.88 for system administration, an increase of $62,764.05 or 8.98%, and $990,572.73 for school administration, an increase of $41,831.06 or 4.41%;
The $1,803,083.62 budget for transportation and buses was also approved, an increase of $183,287.03 or 11.32%. Facilities maintenance increased $62,764.05 or 8.98% to $2,151,913.66. Debt service and other commitments decreased $281,805.22 or 25.03% to $844,102.35.
Altogether, the seven towns will contribute a total of $16,036,860.12 to the budget, an increase of $1,378,402.67 or 9.4% from last year.
Whitefield’s contribution totals $3,079,650.17, an increase of $286,435.39 or 10.25%; Alna’s contribution totals $1,309,635.55, an increase of $169,307.97 or 14.85%; Westport Island will contribute $1,053,265.28, an increase of $80,531.13 or 8.28%; and Somerville’s contribution is $765,780.25, an increase of $35,267 or 4.83%.
Windsor’s contribution is $4,172,064.09, an increase of $305,456.40 or 7.90%; Chelsea’s contribution is $3,212,938.29, an increase of $263,720.90 or 8.94%; and Palermo will contribute $2,443,526.49, an increase of $237,683.87 or 10.78%.
The budget approved at the May 22 meeting will appear on the ballot in the budget validation referendum, which will take place on Tuesday, June 10 at local polling locations.
The next meeting of the RSU 12 Board of Directors will be on Thursday, June 12 at Chelsea Elementary School, at 566 Togus Road in Chelsea, at 6:30 p.m.
