RSU 68 passes budget

Moved to June 14 referendum

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — A proposed $10,515,086 RSU 68 budget for the 2016-17 academic year was approved at the annual district budget meeting on May 31 at the SeDoMoCha School. The spending package will now go to a referendum in the towns of Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Sebec on Tuesday, June 14 with residents of the four communities voting either “yes” or “no” to make a district-wide decision.

“We have what we think is a fiscally responsible budget to the communities that RSU 68 serves, that also meets the needs of our school system and supports our goals,” Superintendent Robert Lucy said.

The approximate $10.5 million figure approved at the district budget meeting across the 22 articles by the 20 voters in attendance represents an increase of over $393,300 (about 3.89 percent) from the current year’s budget. The total is made up of over $5,282,700 in state contributions (about 3 percent more than in 2015-16) and another $5,232,300 in local revenues, with the four district towns having a combined local assessment of $4,546,663.

The local contribution total of a little less than $4.1 million is down by $8,640 from 2015-16 and the $388,852 in local additional monies is up by $240,884. Another $59,000-plus assessed to the four communities is for adult education.

Lucy said the approximate 5.5 percent rise in assessments is a little less than the rate of assessment increases for the towns from the year before. The four total proposed assessments are $2,720,387 for Dover-Foxcroft, $642,666 for Sebec, $615,797 for Charleston and $567,812 for Monson.

“I can tell you over the last six months we have really scrutinized every line carefully,” Lucy said. “Since January we have cut $400,000 in expenditures off of the first budget.”

“We have added an additional fourth-grade teacher and this is because of a projected enrollment of 82 students,” the superintendent said with the total for regular instruction up by $197,100 to just over $6,011,100 He said the elementary art position has been increased from 20 to 32 hours per week and next year all elementary pupils will receive art instruction.

Lucy explained the special education budget is up by just over $119,000 to a total of a little less than $1,364,500. He said three department positions are no longer being covered by MaineCare and now fall under the regular budget.

“We really have a need to have that ed tech-to-student ratio,” the superintendent said. “We can’t rely on MaineCare as we have in the past.”

The district budget meeting included the approval of appropriating $125,000 from the ending balance of 2015-16 school general operating funds to establish a reserve for education needs, as well as those present voting in favor of authorizing the school board to expend these funds during the next academic year.

“We are putting $125,000 into that tuition line at Foxcroft Academy to lower the tuition cost,” Lucy said about the purpose of the reserve account. “We are projecting 323 students at Foxcroft Academy and we are projecting a 5 percent increase in tuition but we won’t know that until December. We felt we needed some additional money in there to lower the tuition rate.”

Full financial information is available on the RSU 68 home page at http://www.sedomocha.org/.