OXFORD – Voters today will be asked to reconsider a $1.9 million portion of the SAD 17 budget that was rejected at the June polls.
Polling stations will be open in the district towns of Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris, Waterford and West Paris.
On June 14, voters authorized the school district to spend a $31.2 million budget, but they did not agree to raise $1.9 million through local taxes. The move triggered the revote, which could occur again if the $1.9 million is rejected today, Superintendent Mark Eastman has said.
In a document faxed to the Sun Journal on Friday, the SAD 17 Board of Directors explained what items have been cut from the budget because the district is not receiving full funding from the state under a new Essential Programs and Services Funding Act.
During this first year of the act, the directors wrote, “we will receive only 84 percent of our entitled subsidy. By 2009 we should receive 100 percent.”
Article 4, which is up for the revote, “only partially bridges the gap between 84 percent and 100 percent funding,” according to the document.
District Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy has said the overall budget is up 2.98 percent, or $905,000 over last year. The local share of the budget is up by more than $700,000, or 5.26 percent, due to the lack of state money.
Under state law, the district is allowed to operate with the initially proposed $31.2 million budget until any revotes are complete.
In the document faxed Friday, the board of directors outlined the following cuts included in this year’s budget:
• Half-time Hebron Elementary teacher, $17,500
• Half-time gifted and talented teacher, $25,000
• Guy E. Rowe Elementary School teacher, $35,000
• Guy E. Rowe special education technician, $20,000
• Waterford Memorial School education technician, $20,000
• An elementary school guidance counselor, $35,000
• All district field trips, $17,575
• After-school library program, $10,000
• Central office support, $10,000
• Oxford Hills Middle School library education technician, $25,000
• Travel and conference money for five staff members, $16,520
• Elementary late bus, $15,000
• Oxford Elementary School computers, $40,000
• Computer and software support, $23,575
• Social studies and science textbooks, $18,250
• Instructional equipment, including chairs and projectors, $26,948
• Staff development, $21,273
• Maintenance, carpet, paint crew and field work at Waterford Memorial and Oxford Hills Middle schools, $77,300
• Additional education technicians at Otisfield Elementary School and Hebron, $30,000
• Instructional supplies, $10,000
An article that would have allowed the district to reinstate the above positions, services and supplies, totaling $493,941, also was rejected by voters June 14. The directors are not asking voters to reconsider that amount, which would have been added to the $31.2 million budget.
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