SUMNER – Selectmen met with members of the SAD 39 School Board on Tuesday to discuss the proposed school budget.

“The actual net impact on the Sumner taxpayer is a decrease of almost 25 percent, $329 less on your tax bill to support the school for the coming year,” said board member Theresa Hayes.

Even though the Budget Committee cut almost $250,000, mostly by cutting staff positions, there is an increase from last year’s budget of $21,000. The current budget is $5,732,258; the proposed budget is $5,753,829, up less than 1 percent. Hayes said that on the day of the final budget meeting, the committee was informed that “the bottom line had to be increased by $27,000” because, as School Board member Stacey Raymond said, “A new student moved into the district with some significant special education needs.”

At that point, Hayes said, “We weren’t willing to go back and find $27,000 worth of cuts. We found everything that we could and we couldn’t absorb those last-minute expenses.”

Hayes said that the Budget Committee had cut as much as it could without compromising the education.

“We all take oaths when we join the School Board and one of them is to uphold the law,” she said, referring to the Maine State Learning Results and No Child Left Behind. “My concern is that flat funding the school in another year, we will be in violation of those mandates.”

Two sets of cards

In other business, resident Ted Dawicki complained that the town keeps two sets of property cards. He said that the set kept in the map room has no information, while the set kept in the office has “all the pertinent information you need in which to file an abatement.”

Town Clerk Susan Runes said the cards in the map room are the new cards the town received from assessors after the revaluation. The new cards have the valuation and tax table for each property, but other information has not yet been transcribed onto them, she said. In order to do an in-depth comparison between properties, as must be done when filing for an abatement, people must access the old cards in the office.

Dawicki asked how people would know that the new cards are not complete.

“They ask,” said Runes. “When people want to know something, they ask. Then we give them the cards.”

Runes said that it would be “incredibly difficult” to make copies of the old property cards for the map room. “The amount of time it would take to do it is far greater than the value of it being there.” She agreed with selectmen that a sign should be placed in the map room stating that the cards there are not complete, and additional information can be obtained by asking in the office.