Maine School Administrative District 17 is cutting where it can from every department but is still looking at an 8.4% higher budget for the next school year, according to Superintendent Heather Manchester. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat

PARIS — Maine School Administrative District 17 presented a $54.7 million 2025-26 budget this week during two community meetings at Central Office in Paris and one at Oxford Elementary School.

Superintendent Heather Manchester explained to those attending that without assessing the district’s student and instructional needs Oxford Hills started this year’s budget process from a million-dollar deficit.

She said that cuts have been made across the district to find relief against rising operational costs – including fully merging Harrison Elementary and Waterford Memorial schools.

The two schools are already partially consolidated in two underutilized buildings – the 107 third-sixth grade students currently attending Harrison put that school at 50% capacity. With 73 preK-second graders at Waterford it operates at 35% of its student capacity.

Uniting all students from both towns at HES will save the district $400,000 and provide transportation and staffing efficiencies.

“We had a negative $1.044 million dollar impact on our 2026 fiscal year budget before we even started,” she said. “Right now, our proposed budget is 8.4% over last year. We’re still working on cutting it,” including $225,000 that are not yet reflected in this week’s presentation.

Sixteen positions are being eliminated next year, at a savings of $1.4 million, including 13.5 educator positions.

Special education will decrease by $203,682 by lowering the number of out-of-district placements for special needs students and deferring the hire of an autism-focused educator.

Another $1.4 million has been taken out of the facilities budget, primarily through scaling back window replacements planned in all buildings and postponing some access and lot paving.

Up until this point no athletics programs have been put on the chopping block, but Manchester said $60,000 for equipment and uniform replacement was shaved off from the departmental budget.

Another $139,000 has been removed from the district’s technology department, primarily by reducing staff hours and using cable infrastructure that had been set to be retired. Contractor services also provided leeway when some bid projects came in below projection.

Cost-cutting is being assessed under the lens for SAD 17’s strategic priorities: healthy and resilient students, maximize facilities to support learning, recruit, retain and grow talent, and promote rigorous, relevant and responsive learning.

During her presentation Manchester said SAD 17 has seen performance improvements in areas that had flagged during the pandemic. Absenteeism indicators are showing progression from attendance strategies, while literacy assessments have increased, and math scores have ticked up under a new curriculum.

“We have put a substantial amount of time put into this budget,” said Oxford School Board Director Gary Smith of Oxford said during Friday’s meeting. “It’s all been looked at very, very carefully. There is nothing in the budget we consider fluff. Our goal is to keep things so that (cuts) don’t hurt the students.”

The budget will go before the school board for approval at its May 5 meeting.

The community validation meeting will follow on May 20, and the district-wide referendum is scheduled for June 10, during state elections.