RUMFORD – Students will attend classes two Saturdays next month to make up for cancellations due to snowstorms, the SAD 43 board decided Monday.
Students are scheduled to attend classes April 9 and April 30 until noon. Teachers will be at school all day. Also, previously scheduled early release days on March 30 and April 27 will become all-day sessions, Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said.
The changes will assure that June 17 is the last day of school for kindergarten through grade 11 students, that June 11 is graduation for high school seniors, and keep the April vacation intact.
SAD 43 has had six snow days this year.
Hodgkins said that although Saturday sessions may not be ideal for learning, he believes they are more conducive to education than adding more days to the end of the school year when the temperature rises.
The administration has pared down a 2005-2006 budget to $14,053,415 and got the go-ahead from the board to reduce it to $13,990,000, which is 2 percent less than last year’s $14.3 million. Voters will decide the amount in June.
Cuts include $112,000 for operation of Virginia Elementary School, which will change to the site for the district’s Day Treatment Program in the fall, and four positions at the school.
Another $211,000 is slated to be cut from the educational technician budget. Hodgkin said about 11 educational technician jobs will be eliminated. He said the district’s current number of educational technicians is disproportionately high compared with districts of similar student population.
The possible elimination of the equivalent of one full-time position at the high school is also being considered.
Other cuts will likely come from a lower assessment for the Region 9 School of Applied Technology, a look at possibly eliminating one or two custodial or bus driving positions when employees retire or leave their jobs, and small amounts from a variety of accounts.
Hodgkin said continued discussion on the budget will take place Monday, March 28. He said he hopes a budget will be adopted at the board’s April 4 meeting.
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