RUMFORD – SAD 43 kicked off development of the 2006-2007 operating budget Monday night when Superintendent Jim Hodgkin outlined the process.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the current year’s budget of just under $14 million in June.
“My goal is that Byron has a reduction in school taxes. If Byron does, then all four towns do,” he said.
Although the current year’s adopted budget came in slightly less than that of the previous year, three of the district’s four towns saw a net increase because of a change in the state’s funding formula. Byron experienced the largest percentage increase.
As scheduled, initial, preliminary budgets from each department are due in mid-December. The first general overview of a tentative figure is expected to be given to the board and made public on Feb. 6.
In between those two dates, requests for possible new positions must be submitted to the superintendent by mid-January and administrative review of submitted figures will take place.
Hodgkin said he hopes a series of workshops on the preliminary Feb. 6 budget will result in a board-adopted figure by March 27.
Prior to June’s voting date, Hodgkin plans to visit the Boards of Selectmen in each district town to field questions and offer information about the proposed 2006-2007 budget.
He said that because the process for developing a new budget is just beginning, he couldn’t estimate what the final figure presented to voters would be. However, he said he doubted that it would remain at the current level.
In other matters, alternative education teachers Steve McGinty and Marsha Burns presented their annual report on the program.
McGinty said a record 10 alternative education students received their Mountain Valley High School diplomas this year, and he expects the same number to graduate in June 2006. The Mountain Valley Alternative Education Program serves students in grades 9-12 who for a variety of reasons are not successful in the regular classroom.
Class capacity is 20 students.
Burns said the program generally has a waiting list of five or six students at any given time.
Diane Taylor-Moore, director of special services, said the current number of identified special education students has decreased from 350 to 340.
Slightly more than 20 percent of SAD 43 students are enrolled in one of the district’s special education programs, while the state average is about 15 percent.
Jeanne Lapointe, director of food nutrition services, reported that there is now a greater emphasis on encouraging the consumption of milk and other calcium-containing foods, and increasing the amount of fiber students eat.
She said flavored milks in larger, plastic containers are being offered, along with white, whole-wheat bread.
She said the percentage of lunch participation by high school students has jumped from less than 50 percent last year to 65 percent this year. Districtwide participation is 70 percent.
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