RUMFORD – SAD 43 directors and administrators began working their way line-by-line through a proposed budget Monday night in an effort to cut about $300,000.
After nearly two hours, they had cut just over $174,000.
Superintendent Jim Hodgkin had said that he wants a budget of about $14.4 million to go before voters in June. That figure, together with additional state aid to education, would ensure a school tax decrease in the district’s four member towns.
At the beginning of the work session, he said that a general consensus would lead to a budget adoption at next week’s meeting.
The regular twice-monthly meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3.
Among the larger cuts were those made to tuitioning special needs students to in-state or out-of-state facilities. About $43,000 was cut. Instead, students will attend the district-operated Pennacook Learning Center day treatment school.
An educational technician III for Meroby Elementary School was eliminated, along with an unfilled speech therapist position. Reduced was a districtwide social worker position from full-time to half-time, at a cost of $22,000. A full-time social worker will be assigned to Pennacook.
Other reductions included several thousand dollars from textbook accounts, health insurance costs of about $11,000, about $17,000 from travel and training accounts, $500 for field trips, and $1,500 for audio-visual materials.
Also, about $5,000 was eliminated from repairs and maintenance, $5,500 from supplies, and $500 for the purchase of equipment.
The board was to tackle the proposed budget for Mountain Valley High School later in the evening. Topics scheduled to be considered for possible change included a position known as Jobs for Maine Graduates, SAD 43’s share of adult education and Region 9 School of Applied Technology assessments, field trips, travel and training, and textbooks.
SAD 43 voters in the district’s member towns of Rumford, Roxbury, Mexico and Byron approved a $14 million operating budget for school year 2005-06.
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