MEXICO – Region 9 board members learned Thursday morning of the schedule for bond and loan payments when they finalized the lending package for the $4.9 million renovation and addition project under way at the River Road vocational school.

Payments, due to begin in August, will affect each of the three sending school districts. How much, director Brenda Gammon won’t know precisely, until next week.

“We just got this. We haven’t broken it down yet,” she said Friday afternoon.

The vocational school is borrowing some money, at no interest, from the Maine Bond Bank. The first payment, of $106,176, is due in November on the 10-year bond.

Much of the rest of the money, $3.165 million, is coming from Suntrust Equipment, Finance and Leasing Corp., from Maryland, as recommended by the school’s law firm, Drummond and Woodsum. The first payment, of $291,000, is due in August. The second, interest only totaling $69,000, is due in February 2009. The remaining funds needed to complete the construction project come from a state grant.

The total 2008-2009 Region 9 budget will rise by $466,000 before any of the usual costs for operating are added in.

“We’re going to take everything into consideration to help the sending districts,” said Gammon of the budget-building process. “All school districts are struggling and we have to hold the line.”

This could include reducing programs, although none of the existing vocational programs are earmarked for elimination.

The construction project includes two new programs in automotive technology and early childhood education.

Last year’s operating budget was about $1.4 million. Of the funds appropriated, SAD 43, in Rumford, generally provides about 50 percent, while SAD 44, in Bethel, and SAD 21, in Dixfield, raise about 20 to 25 percent or so.

Gammon said the board will hear a recommendation for a first draft of the 2008-2008 operating budget at their Feb. 12 meeting.