FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 directors voted Tuesday to set a $32.97 million budget for 2016-17.

It’ $929,273 more than this fiscal year, or an overall 2.9 percent increase.

Earlier this month, directors tasked administrators with cutting $500,000 from a proposed $33.5 million budget to bring it down to a 3 percent increase from the current budget.

Administrators brought back $499,215 in reductions Tuesday night, which would have been a 3.01 percent increase.

After much discussion, Director Keith Swett of Wilton motioned to set the budget at $32.97 million, which means administrators have to cut an additional $36,000. That makes the total amount cut $535,215. It was seconded by Director Helen Wilkey of Vienna.

Thirteen board members approved it with Director Cherianne Harrison of Wilton opposed because the board had not finished reviewing the budget, she said.

Voting in favor were Directors Craig Stickney of Chesterville, Nancy Porter, Ken Charles, Iris Silverstein and Tami Labul, all of Farmington, Angela LeClair of Wilton, Chairwoman Jennifer Zweig Hebert of Starks, Vice Chairwoman Betsey Hyde of Temple, Jennifer Pooler of New Sharon, Richard Hargreaves of New Vineyard, and Robert Patterson of Industry, Swett and Wilkey.

Directors Nancy Crosby of Weld and Ryan Morgan of Farmington were absent. 

The board requested a different budget process this year with the whole board acting as the Budget Committee rather than a few members on an ad hoc committee.

Not all directors spoke in favor of the reduced budget. Hyde said some of the cuts on the list made her heart sick, but she acknowledged that it was a compromise for residents of the 10-town district who told the board they couldn’t afford the taxes on their homes anymore. The comments were made during three informational meetings held in early April.

The proposed budget represents a negative effect on four of the 10 towns, a minimal increase to four other towns and a larger increase to Starks and Weld, which had valuation changes, Zweig Hebert said.

So homeowners should get some relief from the state’s increase of the Homestead Exemption this year to $15,000 and the district is offering some relief, she said.

“This is not an easy compromise but I don’t know where we could go with this,” Zweig Hebert said. “This is pretty harsh.”

The district had $740,000 in carryover from 2014 and $500,000 of it is being used used to help offset the increase, Superintendent Tom Ward said. That leaves $240,000 in carryover for the district to hold on to in case of unexpected expenses. In part, the carryover was gained because of a budget freeze.

There is also $165,000 in contingency funds in different accounts throughout the budget. This year Ward froze the budget in January because of unexpected expenses in special education when five additional students moved into the district that needed out-of-district placements for services, bringing the total of out-of-district placements at nine at that time. Also more students needed one-on-one services, Ward previously said.

The budget will go before voters in a districtwide meeting that had not been set as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. The budget set then will go to a yes or no validation vote, which has also not been set.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

“This is not an easy compromise but I don’t know where we could go with this.” — RSU 9 school board director Jennifer Zweig Hebert

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