OXFORD — The Oxford Hills School District Board of Directors was told Monday night that preparing next year’s school budget will be difficult, particularly with less federal funding.

“It’s too early for us to project what the expense increase will be, but we know there will be one,” Superintendent Rick Colpitts said.

He outlined the known and unknowns of the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2012. He said a lot of the federal education funds provided the last few years through programs such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will not be available in 2012-13.

Programs such as the federal Jobs Bill, which provided the district with an additional $700,000 last year, will be gone. Maine Care payments will be reduced.

Even with the federal assistance, 43 positions have been lost in the district in the last three years, and the superintendent’s recommended class sizes have increased because of lack of funding for new positions and/or class space, he said.

“We’re not going to get much help,” he said.

The budget for 2011-12 was $35.7 million.

Colpitts said the budget process will begin next month when principals and others begin to prepare their spending plans. The budget requests will be presented to the superintendent and budget committee in early 2012. The budget will be presented at public hearings in March, to the Board of Directors in April and May for a vote, and to voters in June for final validation.

While some of the major expenditures such as health insurance costs and energy costs are unknown as the budget building process begins, Colpitts said the administration knows there will be a $500,000 negotiated salary increase, which includes about $330,000 in step increases for teaching staff who have not had a cost-of-living increase the past two years.

The district is also facing the challenge of meeting the state’s required minimum education spending. The Oxford Hills School District is currently $2.4 million under that state mandated number.

While Oxford County unemployment numbers have remained about the same — it was 8.8 percent in September — over the past few years, the local share required to meet budget needs has increased 4.8 percent, he said.

Valuation changes, which drive what each of the eight towns in the district must pay for their share of the education budget, are also expected.

“We’ll spend a lot of time on the road,” Colpitts said, to make the process as transparent as possible for the public.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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