2016 budget is now in the hands of the directors

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer
    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The full RSU 68 Board of Directors now has the 2015-16 budget to examine prior to the scheduled adoption of a preliminary spending plan at the directors’ May 5 meeting. During the April 7 session Superintendent Robert Lucy presented copies of the 40-page document for the directors to look over in detail in the ensuing few weeks.
    “This process, as you know, involves a lot of stakeholders and we have been really working on this since December,” Lucy said. He said the finance committee has been meeting, and at the most recent session on March 24 the committee trimmed expenditures down. However, the reduction equals an increase of about 1.5 percent in overall expenditures from the current academic year.
    “Some of the lines we made reductions where we could and some of the lines where it needed a bit more we made some adjustments,” Lucy said. He said RSU 68 officials work to balance “our needs with the need to be fiscally responsible.”

    Going through the budget, Lucy said under the current proposal a sixth-grade teaching position will be added for next year. He said the current SeDoMoCha Middle School fifth grade has four teachers and enrollment for this grade is projected to be about 75 students for the fall.
    “It allows us to offer content area specialization,” Lucy said. He said the current sixth grade has three teachers, with one instructor for both science and social studies. The new grade 6 teacher would be for social studies.
    “All the rest of our middle school levels have four teachers,” Lucy said, saying having an equal number of teachers for all four grades would enable for more consistency in class scheduling.
    “Our enrollment the last few years has climbed about 45 students, we are about 677 now,” he said, mentioning this as another reason for the new teacher.
    The superintendent mentioned the line item for student and staff support is down by nearly $32,000 from 2014-15. He said the library/media specialist vacancy was not filled in the fall “and we decided we were going to make that an ed tech III position,” which has resulted in an approximate $27,000 savings.
    Other savings in the current budget are about $4,700 in transportation due in the drop in fuel prices, as well as over $20,000 under facilities and maintenance with a new lower priced fuel contract.
    The debt service is scheduled to be $122,000 less, and Lucy said, “This is really the reason our state contribution is down $118,000.” He said as a result the local contribution will be $155,355 more for 2015-16.
    Lucy said the state’s education mil rate is up from $8.1 to $8.48. “Many districts are seeing the results of that now as they work through the budget,” he said, adding that efforts have been made for “an appropriate and realistic increase.”
    “This budget as it is now would reflect increased assessments to the community,” Lucy said.
    Board Chair Rick Johnston said throughout the budget process, those involved have been thinking about where costs could be controlled while also providing for the students. He said an additional fourth-grade teacher was considered “but that was not fair to the taxpayers at this time.”
    Johnston said in the budget are some salary increases for teachers, which he said is fair to the faculty. “It’s stiff competition out there to keep staff today,” he said.
    The school board is scheduled to vote on the 2016 budget during the May 5 meeting. If approved, the district budget meeting would take place on May 26 and then the referendum in Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Sebec would be June 9.
    In other business, Lucy said earlier in the day he received a letter of resignation from SeDoMoCha Assistant Principal Matthew Lokken. “We offer our very best wishes to Matt,” Lucy said, thanking Lokken for his three years and saying the assistant principal will be leaving the district at the end of June.
    “I’m heading to Blue Hill,” Lokken said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge, it’s a pre-K through grade 8 school,” he said about becoming the principal at the Blue Hill Consolidated School.
    At the board’s March meeting music teachers Kaitlin Young and Alecia Griffin made a presentation on a proposed SeDoMoCha Music Boosters and how it would serve the student musicians. The directors gave the music boosters their formal approval to get the group up and running.