Budget

adjustments include

cutting 18 staff positions.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

NEW VINEYARD – SAD 9 administrators clearly did their homework before penciling out the proposed school budget, area town officials agreed Wednesday.

Early in the year, representatives from SAD 9 met with selectmen in the district’s nine towns to discuss the challenges facing each party.

The meetings paid off, Fay Adams, chairwoman of the New Vineyard selectmen, said Wednesday, a day after SAD 9’s Superintendent Michael Cormier revealed the proposed budget.

The proposal is for an increase of $145,809 to $21,345,788, about 0.7 percent more than last year’s budget. That does not include the adult education budget, which is up less than $2,000.

Adjustments made in the budget include a cut of 18 staff positions.

“The board hopes that through attrition and reassignments, the layoffs won’t actually occur,” said board Chairman Greg Webber of New Sharon.

Plus, enrollment in the district is sliding – from 3,100 about 10 years ago to less than 2,700 now.

While the classrooms may be pupil-heavy for a year or so because of the proposed cuts, services to students won’t be impacted in the long run as the smaller classes come up and the ratio balances out, Cormier said.

Webber said because of that, the budget reflects smart forward thinking.

“The students are the center of everything we do, and that’s what will make the decisions,” he stressed.

Adams represents the town where an advisory committee formed to fight the budget last year and where residents voted against the school budget last June.

This year, New Vineyard voters like Adams might be a bit more favorable.

The proposed town assessment, based on state valuation, for New Vineyard is $487,534, the third lowest of the nine towns, ahead only of Temple and Vienna.

“I was impressed,” she said of the budget. “They made a real good faith effort to present us something that was reasonable. I got the feeling right off quick they did their homework. Our message has been carried.”

Adams said the job cuts are sad, but reflect the market in the area. “It’s a fact of life, we just can’t sustain jobs,” she said.

Chesterville Town Clerk Patricia Gordon was happy that the increase was under 1 percent, but pointed out that between the budget that passed last June and the proposed budget for 2004-05, Chesterville’s allocation is still up nearly $100,000.

That’s because the state’s kick-in is dropping off.

“If the state isn’t going to pay, at least the district is trying,” Gordon conceded.

Taxes in Farmington, the town that pays more than a third of the local share, shouldn’t go up with the nominal increase, said Town Manager Dick Davis. But because the state is pitching in less, taxes rise slightly.

Davis said the meetings as well as the collaborative efforts like looking to buy fuel and office supplies together between the district and towns have created the best working relationship between SAD 9 and its nine towns he has ever seen. And, it should only get better he projected.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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