$7.2M budget to face SAD 4 voters at May 26 annual district meeting

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

GUILFORD — On Thursday, May 26 the residents of SAD 4 — comprised of the communities of Abbot, Cambridge, Guilford, Parkman, Sangerville and Wellington — will gather at Piscataquis Community Elementary School for the annual district budget meeting, beginning with an information session at 6 p.m. Voters will be presented with a proposed $7,245,748 spending plan for the 2016-17 academic year, which includes a local assessment of $4,220,071. Detailed financial information is available on the www.sad4.org home page.

“We are up 1.17 percent from last year,” Superintendent Ann C. Kirkpatrick said about the $7.2 million-plus budget, which represents a near $83,500 increase from the current year’s total.

Kirkpatrick said the proposed budget includes a loss of over $200,000 in state subsidy, coupled with a 2.5 percent raise for teachers and 2 percent increase for non-contract staff (support staff contract negotiations are ongoing). The superintendent said the district’s health insurance costs are up by about 8.5 percent from 2015-16.

“We are looking at a substantial raise to taxpayers,” Kirkpatrick said. The proposed $4,220,071 local assessment is up by $547,260 (14.9 percent) from the current year’s figure of a little less than $3,673,000.

“We have trimmed positions,” Kirkpatrick said. She explained there has been a retirement at both PCES and Piscataquis Community Secondary School and these two jobs are not being replaced. “We have trimmed two positions and four half positions,” she said. “Nobody likes to be cut and nobody likes to do the cutting.”

“We will hopefully have the budget approved that night to go referendum on the 14th,” Kirkpatrick said. The sum of the budget articles approved on May 26 will then be decided at the polls on Tuesday, June 14, with residents of the half dozen SAD 4 communities voting the figure either up or down across the district.

The school board is scheduled to have its next meeting on Wednesday, June 15.