By Kenneth Roberts,Special to the Sun Journal

TURNER – SAD 52 has been told by the Maine Department of Education that a miscalculation in the state’s school funding formula led to a significant error in the amount of the district’s subsidy for the next school year.

The DOE announced in February that the district serving Turner, Greene and Leeds would receive nearly $2 million more than the approximately $11.9 million it had received for this year.

In fact, the district is set to receive about $1 million more in state subsidy than this year.

“That’s still a lot of money,” said Superintendent Thomas Hanson, “but it’s only half of what the taxpayers in the district have been led to believe, so we want to get the correct information to them.”

For the next school year, the district will receive $12.85 million in state subsidy, which includes $126,762 dedicated to moving all beginning teachers to a state-mandated $30,000 annual salary.

This year’s total school budget is $20.6 million, including the amount raised locally.

Hanson told SAD 52 directors that it would be difficult to maintain the flat or decreased local tax burden for schools that the state subsidy is designed to produce, given rising costs for heat, transportation and wages, and covering shortfalls in state contributions to special programs.

The SAD 52 error was the only major miscalculation in school subsidies released in February, said Jim Rier, policy director of school funding for the Department of Education.

He said the mistake was corrected “almost immediately” and the SAD 52 business manager was notified.

Of the 288 school systems in Maine, about 20 had minor errors in subsidy projections, Rier said. Legislative actions have resulted in other adjustments for some districts since the initial numbers were released, he said.

Final subsidies will be sent to superintendents and posted on the department’s Web site within a couple of weeks, Rier said.

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