FARMINGTON – SAD 9 handed out some new figures Tuesday night showing the state is expected to kick in $154,890 more than last year, not $123,668 less.

The new amounts have the state paying a proposed $11,593,082 for 2004-05, with the local allocation $8,836,058, which is split among the nine towns in the district.

The higher state subsidy is based on the budget Gov. John Baldacci proposed in early March. In a letter to superintendents, Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron stressed that the new state allocations only reflected the governor’s proposal and were still pending approval by the Legislature.

The district budget proposal handed out last week showed the state paying $123,668 less than last year.

Industry will have the biggest jump in assessment, about $51,648 more than last year. Temple will have the smallest increase, only $9,763.

With the governor’s proposal, the towns will pay a total of $274,357 more than last year.

SAD 9’s total proposed budget is up $145,809 from last year to $21,345,788, about 0.7 percent more than the $21,199,979 last year.

Cuts in the budget include 18 staff positions, including eight elementary teachers, six assistant coaches, two study hall monitors, the registrar in the Guidance Office, one custodian and one bus driver. Those cuts reflect a savings of more than $400,000 and the district will try not to lay anyone off through retirements and attrition.

At Tuesday night’s board meeting, directors also unanimously approved two fields trips. Sixty seventh- and eighth-graders at Mount Blue Middle School will go to Bar Harbor for two days in June. There they will hike, bike, conduct several hands-on science experiments and visit an oceanarium.

And 45 others from the school will travel for two days in June to the Forks for a white-water rafting trip. Both trips are entirely paid by student fund raising.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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