On June 10, residents will vote on the proposed $7.9 million budget.
LIVERMORE FALLS – School officials were faced with several rows of empty seats Thursday night at a public hearing on the proposed 2003-04 budget. Only one citizen attended, in addition to reporters and school-related personnel.
The SAD 36 budget will be voted on by referendum from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on June 10 at the Brettuns Community Building in Livermore, and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Livermore Falls fire station.
Despite the attendance, Superintendent Terry Despres reviewed the $7,888,894 proposal, which is $60,000 less than last year’s budget.
He stressed that programs will not be cut to reach this goal but that new sources of funding have been found, resulting in a .63 mil reduction to the towns at a critical time for the municipalities. The reduction to Livermore is small, only $1,337, but a $40,000 increase was projected from that town had the millage not gone down.
“Livermore is becoming more and more a primary bedroom community along Route 4,” Despres said.
The possibility of more students did not faze him, however, as he noted that the district could absorb a fairly good increase in population – as long as the new students were not all in the same grade.
Livermore Falls, due to decreased valuation, will save $65,664 in the coming budget at a time when the town’s tax rate is of prime consideration.
Although the proposed budget appears to be less, and there is less dependence on local dollars, it is actually $141,000 more than last year’s since other sources of revenue were found, Despres explained. “We have been looking at the right avenue for resources, not taxes.”
The superintendent cautioned that there are still more projects to be done, such as the roof and walls at the high school.
He praised his board, administrators and staff in their support of the budget along with the cooperation he had received from town officials. “It was a group effort.”
He gave especially high praise to the staff at Livermore Elementary School, which worked hard to revise its previous status as a priority school so that it is now an exemplary model for other schools.
The middle school has gone through a major period of review, he said, and the high school did a major self-exam in the application for a Promising Futures Grant.
“The change process has already started, the community is functioning as a group to make things happen,” he said.
The board agreed to postpone action on the Part II budget, funds which were put into reserve. “The state doesn’t have to fund what it says it will,” Despres explained. “We won’t touch that $52,000 until the state plays its last card.”
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