The RSU/MSAD 40 Regional Budget Meeting will be Tues., June 7 at 7 p.m. at Medomak Valley High School, Manktown Road, Waldoboro.
The meeting is an open-town-meeting style vote on each expense article in the proposed budget. Voters at the meeting will have an opportunity to discuss, amend and vote on each article. The school board voted to send the budget to voters as closed articles, which means voters will have the ability to lower budget items, but not raise them.
The budget as approved at the meeting will then go to a referendum validation vote on Tues., June 14 in each town in the district. If voters reject the proposed budget, the budget approved by the school board in April will take effect until a new one can be drafted and sent to voters.
The draft budget, a total of $21,489,112, to be presented at the meeting was approved by the RSU/MSAD 40 School Board in April.
The draft budget is a 2.98 percent ($621,155) increase over the current year’s budget. The total local contribution to the proposed budget is $12,126,864.65, a 4.58 percent ($531,108) increase over current year’s budget.
Each town’s share of the local contribution is determined using a combination of student population and property values.
Waldoboro’s share is 35.6 percent, or $4,316,690.87. This is a 3.38 percent ($141,047.87) increase over the current year.
Warren’s share is 25.88 percent, or $3,138,941.90, or a 5.53 percent ($164,348.90) increase over the current year.
Union’s share is 15.51 percent, or $1,881,349.65, or a 4.4 percent ($79,339.65) increase over the current year.
Friendship’s share is 12.95 percent, or $1,570,768.52. This is a 4.73 percent ($70,943.52) increase over the current year.
Washington’s share is 10.05 percent, or $1,219,113.71, which is a 6.60 percent ($75,427.71) increase over the current year.
Along with the general budget articles, voters will also be asked to approve two additional articles to add a fuel contingency fund and buy two new buses. Funding for these two articles, a total of $129,000, is not included in the regular school budget.
The fuel contingency fund article requests $75,000 to establish a fuel stabilization fund. The money in that fund can only be spent on heating and transportation fuel if all the fuel money in the budget is spent in a given year. Any money in that fund not spent will roll over into the next year and remain in the fuel stabilization fund.
The bus purchase article requests $54,000 to make the first year’s payments on two new school buses. The two buses requested in this article are in addition to two new buses included in the general budget.
