District officials awaiting possible state decisions on 2014 budget

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer
    DOVER-FOXCROFT — A week before the June 18 RSU 68 School Board meeting, the near $9.8 million budget for the 2013-14 school year was approved through a referendum across the district’s four communities. While the spending plan is

in place for the start of the next academic year on July 1, district officials are waiting to see if any developments out of Augusta will result in changes to the budget.
    “We are still awaiting state decisions in regard to the RSU 68 budget,” Superintendent Alan Smith said, as proposals have been made that involve reductions in various revenue-sharing programs. RSU 68 is scheduled to receive nearly $4,970,000 in a state contribution for its 2014 budget, over half of the $9,792,467 total.
    ‘Most school districts have gone through their budgets and had them voted on,” Smith said. He said some districts are waiting until August, but he said this would not feasible for RSU 68 with some of the contracts that are in place. Smith said if the budget for RSU 68 ends up being less than the near $9.8 million figure there may need to be a special meeting, such as in the early spring, or there could be a few other options.
    “Once we have a little more working knowledge I will sit down with the budget committee to see what (proposals and enacted legislation) did or did not do for us,” Smith said.
    “We are fortunate, we have great community support and if you look around the state that’s not always the case,” he said. District-wide the budget passed by a 305 to 132 margin, with only Monson having more no votes than yes votes and the budget passing by a wide majority in Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft and Sebec.
    “It’s important that we are collaborating with all of our towns,” board member Sue Mackey Andrews said, as the municipalities are also looking at how to handle possible large reductions in state revenue sharing.
    In other business, the school board had a pair of presentations with District Librarian Gayle Peirce reporting on a grant for the summer reading program at the SeDoMoCha School. Peirce said the $7,500 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation provided an “opportunity for every grade 4-8 student to pick some books of interest.”
    Through the grant each of the pupils was able to order $21 worth of books through the Scholastic Book Club to read over the summer. “For some of these kids $21 was a lot of money and they were so happy to order,” Peirce said, saying some students had previously been unable to afford any books.
    She said the books were presented to the students during an assembly the week prior. Volunteers wheeled each homeroom’s selections into the gym via shopping carts lent by Will’s Shop ‘n Save in Dover-Foxcroft. Every students’ books were separated, in plastic bags donated by Will’s Shop ‘n Save, for them to pick up and take home.
    “There are some funds left over and with those funds we are doing some book swaps,” Peirce said with these events scheduled for July 2 and Aug. 7 from 10 a.m. to noon each day and another being planned for after school resumes in the fall. Peirce added that the summer readings will count toward Strive for 25, in which students are encouraged to read 25 books before the end of the school year.
    The second presentation was made by grade 8 teachers Dyan McCarthy-Clark and Ryan Nickerson on the exploratories program. McCarthy-Clark said during the school year seventh- and eighth-graders had the opportunity to take part in three different weekly, hour-long sessions where they could choose from a variety of activities.
    “We had 34 different exploratory offerings,” McCarthy-Clark said, with many lasting for nine weeks and a few — such as Rosetta Stone and yearbook — meeting for the entire year. Most of the exploratories were taught by teachers and several were taught by volunteers, including a parent and an employee of Mayo Regional Hospital.
    “It would be incredible if we had some experts in doing some of these kinds of stuff,” McCarthy-Clark said, as volunteers from the community could help provide more exploratory offerings for next year.
    Nickerson said he enjoyed getting to know the seventh-graders in his exploratories, who he will have in class next year, which included strength and conditioning programs aimed at the middle-schoolers who were not part of the school’s sports teams. He and McCarthy-Clark said the exploratory program could be expanded next year to include students in grade 6 if scheduling permits.