OXFORD — Oxford Hills School District Superintendent Rick Colpitts told the Board of Directors this week that the district has dodged another financial bullet.

General Purpose Aid to Education and funding for higher education will not be reduced by Gov. John Baldacci’s order to cut state spending by more than $10 million in the current fiscal year, he reported.

“Thankfully we do not have a curtailment scheduled in the future,” Colpitts said after receiving a letter from Maine Commissioner of Education Angela Faherty.

The governor recently signed an order to cut spending by $8.8 million, and identified $1.2 million in spending freezes that can be implemented through the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. He also directed the department to pursue other spending freezes that can be implemented within its authority.

In his remarks about the most recent state spending cuts, Baldacci said, “The school year has begun and local districts need time to prepare for the loss of Recovery Act dollars, which will impact their budgets next year.”

Earlier this year, school officials were grappling with news of a projected $4 million loss in state aid over the next two fiscal years, including a $2.1 million loss in state revenues in fiscal 2011 and another $2 million in fiscal 2012.

School officials said recently they received close to $800,000 in federal funds to reduce a projected $2 million school budget funding gap for at least another year. The $791,000 will come from the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act that was passed by Congress and signed by President Barak Obama in August.

The expected shortfall is now covered by the federal money and some district-wide cuts, District Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy said.

In June, voters unanimously approved a $34.2 million budget for the next fiscal year, which began on July 1, but the budget was almost $2.3 million less than the previous year. Thirty-six positions were cut and some classes consolidated.

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