JAY — Regional School Unit 73 board of directors Thursday night, Feb. 15, learned of two changes and approved another for the proposed 2024/2025 budget.
Superintendent Scott Albert said the budget would be $39,241 less or down from an increase of 6.3% to 6.1%. In their new contract, teachers get money based on the number of meetings attended and a ballpark figure was used in the original budget, he noted. A recent teachers’ association survey showed how many meetings had been attended in the past, which meant about $25,000 could be cut, he stated.
“The other piece, is a new person is taking a lesser insurance policy [with lower premiums], which wasn’t known ahead of time,” Albert said.
Later the board voted 6 to 4 with one abstention to remove $10,000 subsidies that were to have come from the towns of Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls for food service and increase the carry over amount $30,000 to offset those reductions.
Voting in favor were directors Lenia Coates and Robin Beck of Livermore Falls, and Jodi Cordes, Elaine Fitzgerald, Tina Riley and Bob Staples – all from Jay. Joel Pike from Jay, Don Emery of Livermore Falls and Holly Morris and Andrew Sylvester from Livermore were opposed. Phoebe Pike of Livermore Falls abstained. Directors Tasha Perkins of Livermore and Chantelle Woodcock of Jay were absent. Student representatives to the board Avery Ryder and Skylar Condon couldn’t vote as it was a financial matter.
The amount of food service money carried over from this fiscal year that could be used to cover expenses was discussed at the Feb. 8 meeting.
“One question was what could we use that money for, we talked about debt, etc.,” Albert said. “We reached out to David Hartley [child nutrition consultant at Maine Department of Education]. He shared with us that as soon as that money is appropriated by the towns and sent to us, it automatically falls under federal guidelines as it’s under food service.”
One recommendation made earlier was to not request money from the towns in order to whittle down excess carry over in the food service department, Albert said. The district had been notified the department’s carry over amount was too high, he stated.
Laura Merrill, food service director, said she had received different answers when she asked how moneys could be spent. She felt strongly that minimum support from the towns should be asked for to cover unexpected costs and little extra things food service provides such as a cookie or ice cream sandwich at the holidays or a bag of chips with lunch.
When Merrill took over, food service was about $240,000 in the red, Staples said. She has done an incredible job, brought the amount needed from the towns down, he stated. In a few years, if necessary the district could ask the towns for money again, he added.
Riley suggested equipment installation or maintenance be moved to buildings/grounds department if those aren’t covered in the food service budget. She asked why it wasn’t already being done.
Joel Pike suggested getting some better answers, make sure everyone understands before voting. He didn’t want to have to go back to the towns after the budget is approved to request more money should something unexpected come up in food service.
“We have more money in this [carry over] account than is needed,” Cordes, who is on the Finance Committee, said. “We can decide how it gets fixed later. We have to drop that amount. [Removing the town subsidies] isn’t going to break us.”
If money is taken out of revenue an equal amount has to be taken out of expenses, Staples noted. Add $30,000 to the $148,192 from carry over already in the budget so the towns don’t need to be asked for it, he said.
Joel Pike was concerned with developing an inaccurate budget, pointed out that some budget adjustments were made without directors voting on them.
Riley asked if changes made now could be changed again if additional information came in.
Albert said changes could be made until the budget warrant articles are approved.
Sylvester didn’t want to have to make a later change that would ask the towns for money after deciding not to ask them.
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