Corrected figures were adopted for one article on the warrant for the RSU 40’s proposed 2014-2015 budget at an open meeting June 12, and voters in the district’s five towns will have a chance to validate the budget by referendum on Wednesday, June 18.
The voter-adopted but not yet validated budget for K-12 and adult education is $22,948,569.80, up $756,139.22 or 3.41 percent over the current budget.
The figures in question at the follow-up adoption meeting held June 12 were each of the town’s contributions to fund public education as described in the state’s Essential Programs and Services Funding Act as described in article 13 on the warrant.
The figures were correct on the original warrant, but incorrect figures made it into the district’s budget booklet, according to district staff.
The figures included in the booklet were read aloud and voted on at the original district budget meeting, held May 27, and the correct figures were adopted in a sparsely attended meeting June 12. The total amount did not change.
The corrected towns’ assessments for Essential Programs and Services were adopted as: Friendship, $1,484,336.29; Union, $1,691,481.22; Waldoboro, $3,932,087.71; Warren, $3,020,773.69; Washington, $1,116,974.53.
The figure for Union was incorrect on the warrant for the corrective budget meeting, and was amended down by $11.25.
Those figures are not the towns’ full shares if the budget is approved, however.
District towns would need to raise the following to fund the proposed budget: Friendship, $1,721,612.22, up $34,002.51 or 2.01 percent; Union, $1,961,882.98, up $2,060.59 or 0.11 percent; Waldoboro, $4,560,644.57, down $60,253.91 or 1.3 percent; Warren, $3,503,654.08, up $114,753.99 or 3.39 percent; and Washington, $1,295,526.50, down $14,691.56 or 1.12 percent.
One noticeable change from the current year is $200,000 in contract services for special education services that were not normally accounted for in the general fund budget, but the costs are offset by anticipated reimbursements from MaineCare.
The biggest increase in the budget is special education, which is up $636,938.51 or 18.37.
According to Business Manager Karla Miller, aside from the contracted services, the change is due to increased student needs in high school and among incoming kindergarteners and the subsequent need to hire four new ed techs.
Regular instruction has the second-largest increase at $8,481,855.84, up $146,853.60 or 1.76 percent, which includes contractual 2 percent salary increases for teachers and support staff, as well as the addition of new 32-student pre-kindergarten programs at Miller School and Warren Community School.
The pre-K programs could add (based on current rates) $178,000 in state subsidy in future years if fully filled with student, which interim Superintendent Michael Cormier said will exceed the costs of implementing the programs.
The budget also includes cuts of two library tech positions.
With the cuts, Union Elementary School and Prescott Memorial School would have 2.5 days of library tech coverage and one day each of coverage by an elementary librarian, Miller School and Warren Community School would each have one day less of tech coverage each week but those days would be covered by the librarian, and Friendship Village School would have two days of tech coverage reduced, with one day covered by the librarian.
“We understand that the change is difficult but the administrative team felt that this was an area where reductions could be made in an effort to control costs,” Cormier wrote in a letter to residents.
Cost centers in the budget were adopted as: regular instruction, $8,481,885.84; special education, $4,103,274.73; career and technical education, $708,782.02; other instruction, $396,101.63; student and staff support, 1,928,762.43; system administration, $594,300.46; school administration, $1,444,338.09; transportation, 1,664,471.81; facilities and maintenance, $2,086,161.79; debt service and other commitments, $1,460,491; all other expenditures, $25,000.
The voters have also adopted the district’s local share of the Region 8 Mid-Coast School of Technology budget at $693,320.33, and $15,461.70 for the local share of adult education within the career and technical education region.
The budget validation referendum is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18. Polling places (at the various town offices) will be open in Waldoboro and Friendship from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and in Union and Washington from 2 to 6 p.m., and in Warren from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
