On April 28, the RSU/MSAD 40 School Board narrowly approved a $21,489,112 budget to send to voters.
The proposed budget is a 2.98 percent ($621,155) increase over the current year’s budget. The board also approved sending the budget to voters as a closed article, which means that voters will have the opportunity to decrease the budget but not increase it.
The budget will now go before district residents at a town-meeting-style vote Tues., June 7.
The budget as approved at that meeting will go to a ratification vote in each town. The ratification vote will be held on June 14, and will be a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote on the total budget.
If voters reject the proposed budget, the budget approved by the board on April 28 will take effect until a new one can be drafted and sent to voters.
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.
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.
“There were years we tried to squeeze the budget and not buy buses,” Bonnie Davis-Micue, chairman of the RSU/MSAD School Board said, “and this is the catch up.”
