The RSU 48 Board of Directors recommended a $14,054,124.27 education budget for the upcoming fiscal year at its meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8.
RSU 48 Superintendent Lynsey Johnston presented the details of the budget through a slideshow presentation in an effort to make budget updates more accessible to the public.
“RSU 48’s goal is to be communicating and transparent and accessible for people,” Johnston said.
The recommended budget is an increase of $891,984.27 or 6.78% from last year. The total figure includes the cost of a school bus purchased last fiscal year. Johnston explained the $115,750 needed to be incorporated in this year’s budget for bookkeeping purposes, but the cost will be reimbursed by the state. Those funds will then transfer back to the school reserve fund, she said.
“That makes our budget appear to be $115,750 higher than it is from the expenses we actually planned for,” Johnston said. “We must put it in there and code it that way. I can’t just take a check and put it in reserve, because the state also needs us to prove that we followed legal channels on receiving the reimbursement and putting it back into the account that we took the money from originally to purchase the bus.”
The budget covers the expenses of all students in pre-K through 12th grade in Bremen, Damariscotta, and Newcastle. The three towns left AOS 93 in 2025 to form RSU 48.
Since leaving AOS 93, local savings total $177,693.82, according to Johnston. She credited the district’s “multitasking administrative model,” which includes merging the superintendent and business manager positions, for a lot of the savings.
“This structure has proven to be a good decision for the RSU 48 community in terms of reducing those overhead costs and keeping our money with students,” Johnston said.
Bremen will be responsible for providing a total of $2,023,240.75, an increase of $222,213.24 or 12.34%. Damariscotta will pay $5,158,149.22, an increase of $310,485.13 or 6.4%. Newcastle will be responsible for $4,020,062.07, an increase of $190,354.12 or 4.97%.
Over 75% of the recommended education budget is for direct instruction, including the regular instruction budget of $7,513,051, an increase of $455,006.91 or 6.45%, and the special education budget of $2,880,285.84, an increase of $100,300.84 or 3.61%.
Three areas of the budget account for a majority of the increase: staff salaries and benefits, secondary tuition and transportation, and the bus purchase pass-through.
Staff costs total $7,350,710.32, an increase of $435,434.32 or 6.28%.
Johnston said the cost of health insurance has increased by 10.25%, which accounts for some of the increase in staff costs. Johnston said the only way to decrease this cost would be to cut staff, which she is not recommending.
The secondary education budget totals $4,690,662, an increase of $241,231 or 5.42%. Johnston said secondary education is broken up into three distinct areas of expenditure: tuition, insured value factor, and transportation.
Tuition costs are set by the state and out of the board’s control, Johnston said. The rate for public schools is based on an actual per-pupil cost that is calculated annually for every district. Private school rate, known as maximum allowable tuition, is set based on the per-pupil cost from the previous school year.
Johnston said a majority of the students within RSU 48 attend Lincoln Academy, a private town academy in Newcastle.
The insured value factor, which is 10% of the maximum allowable tuition, is used to pay for building upkeep and critical maintenance in private school because those institutions do not receive other funding for those issues, Johnston said.
The total cost for transportation for secondary education is $223,781.25. Johnston said the district has a five-year contract with First Student, a bus rental service.
“So our secondary education costs are actually pretty easy to calculate,” Johnston said. “The only variable we have there is the students moving in and out during the year.”
Other areas of the budget include the other instruction budget, which totals $234,951.81, an increase of $29,558.81 or 14.29%; student and staff support, $602,439.71, an increase of $39,865.71 or 7.09%; system administration, $466,903.01, a decrease of 38,933.99 or 7.7%; school administration, $442,541.68, an increase of $20,738.68 or 4.92%; transportation and buses, $797,467.93, an increase of $178,204.93 or 28.78%; and facilities maintenance, $961,383.38, an increase of $97,242.38 or 11.25%.
The total budget for all other expenditures, which includes school lunch, totals $30,000, an increase of $10,000 or 50%.
The district budget meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13 in the Great Salt Bay Community School gym. This meeting will follow the board’s regularly scheduled meeting, which will be at 5:30 p.m. the school cafeteria.
For more information, go to greatsaltbayschool.org.
