RUMFORD – The SAD 43 board Monday night unanimously adopted a $13.9 million budget, which will go to residents for a vote in June.
Although the spending plan is $321,000 less than this year, three of the four district towns will see their assessments go up because of a state funding change. Rumford’s assessment would go from $6.77 million to just over $7 million; Roxbury’s from $308,000 to $318,500; and Byron’s from $129,400 to $140,700. Mexico’s would drop from $1.3 million to $965,000.
Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said much of the spending reduction is the result of changing Virginia Elementary School from a school to the site of the day treatment program, the loss of four full-time positions and 11 educational technicians.
Other reductions include a special education position at Mountain Valley High School, $10,000 cut from the out-of-district placement account, and money for supplies at the Central Office.
Added to the budget was about $20,000 to upgrade five educational technician IIs to educational technician IIIs. The higher level allows planning and delivering instruction as well as escorting students to off-site projects and work programs.
The districtwide meeting to vote on the budget is set for Thursday, June 2, also at the high school. A validation referendum will take place in each town June 7.
Hodgkin plans to distribute a newsletter, describing the proposed budget in detail, to all households in the district during the week of May 16.
In addition to the budget, voters will also decide what to do with $86,000 returned to the district, determine whether to continue with the budget validation process that calls for a districtwide vote and a validation referendum, and provide a nonbinding opinion on whether to pursue tentative plans to build a fitness center onto the high school.
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A public hearing on the budget is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, in the Muskie Auditorium of the high school.
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