FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors will start 2015-16 budget discussions on Thursday, April 2, Superintendent Tom Ward said Tuesday.

Ward introduced a schedule at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. on April 2 in the cafeteria of the Mt. Blue Middle School in Farmington. There was a conflict with The Forum at Mt. Blue Campus because of a music festival that will take place that night, so an alternative meeting place was established.

The remainder of the board meetings and budget meetings will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. in The Forum at Mt. Blue Campus.

On April 2, the board is scheduled to review instruction for elementary, secondary, districtwide, bilingual and gifted and talented budgets, according to Ward’s schedule.

On Tuesday, April 7, directors will review special services, vocational, athletics, co-curricular and guidance budgets. On Thursday, April 9, budget talks will be centered on library, other student and staff support, and technology budgets.

During a regular board meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, the review will target the school board, administration and transportation. On Thursday, April 16, directors will go over operations, debt and revenue.

The initial target to begin budget deliberations is on Thursday, April 30, but that could change, depending on where the board is at with the budget, Ward said.

A tentative schedule to sign warrants is on May 12. A public hearing will be scheduled prior to that day.

The districtwide budget vote is scheduled at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 1, in the auditorium of the Mt. Blue Campus.

The yes or no validation vote will be held in each of the 10 towns in the district on Tuesday, June 9.

All budget and board meetings leading up to the votes are open to the public, Ward said.

The budget time line will be put on the district’s website and Facebook page and will be sent to individual towns and news media.

The preliminary ED 279, the state form that shows districts what to expect for state subsidy, shows that the district will be flat-funded, he said. That could change, he said.

Last year, the district’s subsidy was cut by $400,000, he said.

The current budget is $31 million, which was 4.3 percent, or $1.29 million, more than the previous year.

Right off the bat, towns are being hit with the state’s increased tax rate for education even before the budget process starts, Ward said.

He said he hopes the Legislature can do something to help offset the state’s increase for property tax relief. It will all come down to how much funding the district receives and what the education tax rate will be, he said.

The board has to determine what kind of budget the district can bring to the towns that can be supported, he said.

“Our target will be much lower than last year,” Ward said of any proposed increase. “We are all going to have to work together.”

Meetings have been set to speak with town officials in each of the 10 towns in the district. Those towns are Chesterville, Farmington, Industry, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Starks, Temple, Vienna, Weld and Wilton.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net