RUMFORD — The Regional School Unit 10 board of directors decided Monday on a $34.58 million budget for 2024-25 and will take a final vote on it April 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Buckfield Junior-Senior High School.
It is $1.3 million more than this year’s $33.26 million and an average 7.65% increase in taxes for the seven towns of Rumford, Mexico, Roxbury, Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner and Hanover.
The board will use $1.35 million carried over from this year to lessen the impact on town assessments.
Directors have cut more than $2.2 million from the original proposal of $37.24 million.
The board’s final budget will be presented for discussion and vote at a public meeting May 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Mountain Valley High School. A second vote to validate the budget is scheduled for June 11 at polling stations in each town.
In other business at Monday’s meeting at the high school, Jobs for Maine Graduates’ Job Specialist Larry Thornton, high school students and JMG participants Dawcyn Billings and Autumn Pollis gave an update on recent and upcoming events.
Pollis, a senior, said a schoolwide community service project titled Make a Difference Day will be held April 26.
“This year the entire student body will be participating in our community service day,” Pollis said. “We will be cleaning up all of Hosmer Field” in Rumford.
Students and staff are working with Rumford Parks and Recreation Superintendent Marcus Palmer and have received supplies from Aubuchon Hardware and Home Depot, which will donate rakes and 150 pairs of work gloves for high school students, Pollis said.
The field, normally used by the high school sports teams, had $100,000 damage from flooding Dec. 18, Thornton told the board Monday.
Billings, a junior, said he obtained his Maine Career Exploration badge this year through the JMG program. It requires students to complete a non-paid 40-hour job and, when completed, receive a $500 check and a badge from JMG.
Billings worked with business owner Kris Howes at Gaskyl Printing and Ink Maine in Rumford.
“I really enjoyed my experience over there with Kris Howes,” Billings said, adding Howes taught him how to make stickers and banners for local businesses.
Billings said he was “really interested in this fieldwork, as an artist.”
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