RSU 68 voters approve a near $9.8M spending plan

District referendum
will be June 11

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — Voters from RSU 68 attending the annual district budget meeting May 28 at the SeDoMoCha School gave their approval to a budget totaling $9,792,467 for the 2013-14 school year. The near $9.8 million spending plan — made up of over $4.8 million from local revenue sources and nearly $4,969,500 in state contributions — represents an increase of just over $142,000 from the current year’s budget of about $9,650,000.

    In the proposed budget a sum of nearly $4,132,900 needs to be raised by the four municipalities for the total cost of funding public education for pre-K through grade 12 as described in the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act. This figure breaks down to over $2.47 million for Dover-Foxcroft, nearly $580,000 for Sebec, slightly more than $545,000 for Monson and approximately $537,000 for Charleston.
    “This a tough budget, some of this is not the work of this board but the work of somewhere else,” School Board Chair Rick Johnston said. The district’s share of the state contribution is anticipated to be nearly $166,000 less than for the 2013 fiscal year, while RSU 68 also received a $58,000 mid-year curtailment of state aid for 2012-13 with the curtailment amount also expected to be applied to the 2014 state aid.
    Johnston said he wished the money curtailed could be used elsewhere in the RSU 68 budget, but for the first time in several years the spending plan includes no cuts to staff. “I do believe it is a very good budget,” he said.
    The 21 warrant articles making up the 2013-14 budget all passed as written, with only the article featuring any questions concerning using $100,000 from a reserve account for tuition at Foxcroft Academy — where RSU 68 students in grades 9-12 attend. Superintendent Alan Smith said three years ago this money was set aside in anticipation of a larger number of students attending Foxcroft Academy, which would prevent a sudden increase in the costs for taxpayers. “The money has been in the bank since, and now the time has come,” he said.
    During the information session before the district meeting, a discussion took place about opportunities for middle school students, who may be too old for the recreation program offerings such as those in grades 7-8, to participate in sports.
    Smith said the budget does not include extra money for this purpose, such as for several sub-varsity teams, but for some sports there are no players cut from the team and other sports may have a JV squad to enable for more participants. “If brought to me in a timely manner I will do everything in my power to offer these kids opportunities to participate,” Smith said.
    “The big expense really is travel,” he said, as the idea of intramurals in a sport such as basketball was mentioned as a way for all interested students to take part. Smith said this item would likely be looked by the school board at its June meeting and then again in August (the directors are scheduled to not meet in July).
    Resident Jenny Chase mentioned over 50 wrestlers in pre-kindergarten through grade 8 take part in the youth and SeDoMoCha Middle School wrestling programs. She said the programs are funded largely in part due to the efforts of parents, who also work together to solve problems related to transportation.
    A question of the $564,500 for transportation asked if this amount includes the pre-K program. Smith said it does not, saying a survey was conducted and only about five parents indicated they would use school transportation for their pre-K children.
    “It’s something I would like to really, really solve, but it is something we are unable to do,” Smith said. He said district officials will look at the feasibility of pre-K transportation down the road in order to provide more opportunities for area children.
    The budget now will go out to the four district communities of Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Sebec for a referendum vote on Tuesday, June 11. Voting hours will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in each town, at the Charleston Community Center, Morton Avenue Municipal Building in Dover-Foxcroft, Monson Town Hall meeting room and Harland Ladd Municipal Building in Sebec respectively.