Proposed school budgets in four of the five area school systems are waiting to be passed.

Last month, voters in Jay approved that school system’s $10.18 million budget, and the budgets in SAD 9, SAD 58, Livermore/Livermore Falls and Rangeley are still awaiting voter approval, expected in June.

The proposed budget in Livermore/Livermore Falls is the only one in the county that represents a decrease. The proposed amount for the entire system, which has around 1,100 students, is $7,876,898, down from last year’s approved amount of $7,949,669.

The local share of that budget is down to $1,556,828 from last year’s approved amount of $1,558,164 for taxpayers in Livermore. Taxpayers in Livermore Falls have a share of $1,855,771 in the proposed budget, from last year’s passed amount of $1,921,434.

Meanwhile, the state’s allocation for that district is up from $3,833,119 chipped in last year, to an expected $3,892,797 in 2003-04. The final vote will come on June 10.

Residents in Rangeley were presented their school’s proposed budget for 2003-04 at a public hearing on Tuesday night. Rangeley Superintendent Kenneth Coville and the school board have set the budget at $2,097,585, an increase of 4.87 percent from last’s year approved amount of $2,000,089.

The majority of the increases in Rangeley’s budget are attributed to a significant rise in teacher and staff salary and benefits. The local allocation for the town of Rangeley is 6.93 mills, well below the state’s average rate for education, projected at 11.39 in 2003-04.

About 15 percent of the around 230 students attending Rangeley schools come from area plantations and contribute to the budget on per-pupil tuition payments.

That budget will go up for public approval, along with the municipal budget, at the town’s annual meeting on Thursday, June 12.

Meanwhile school board members in SAD 58 have set their budget, and the warrants are at the printers, said Superintendent Quenten Clark.

The proposed budget is $8,661,421, up 3.18 percent from the approved amount of $8,394,404 in 2002-03 due mainly to insurance and salary increases for employees, up $215,000.

“Our budget it pretty stable, there are no huge increases and no huge decreases, except for insurance costs,” said Clark. “The whole budget seems to be falling into place, the insurance issue is just out of control.”

The state’s allocation for SAD 58 is up nearly $43,000 to $3,517,443, leaving the combined five-town local share at just over $2.2 million.

Local shares of the budget will actually decrease from last year in three of the five towns – Eustis, Kingfield and Stratton – in SAD 58. Phillips and Avon will have slight increases.

The budget that has generated the most heated debate is the nine-town SAD 9 budget, which is up just over 2 percent from $20,765,361 to a proposed amount of $21,199,979. There are more than 2,700 students in SAD 9 and the per pupil cost to educate students in the district is significantly lower than the state’s average at both the elementary and secondary levels.

Like in the Rangeley system, the total increases in negotiated teacher salaries and benefits are actually higher than the total budget increase, meaning that several positions have been cut or streamlined.

In response to the budget controversy, mainly generated by a group of residents in New Vineyard calling themselves the budget advisory committee, the district’s school board chopped its budget increase by nearly one-half percent March.

Earlier this month, the board set a date for the public hearing on the proposed budget for 7 p.m. on May 27 at the high school, and agreed that the referendum vote would come on June 10.

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