DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The RSU 68 board of directors gave their approval to a budget for the 2014-15 school year totaling $9,972,119 during a meeting May 6 at the SeDoMoCha School. This figure represents an increase of just under $118,000, approximately 1.8 percent, from the current year.
The school board also scheduled the district budget meeting for Tuesday, May 27, at SeDoMoCha, starting with the information session at 6 p.m. The spending plan approved that evening will then go out to the four district communities for a referendum vote on Tuesday, June 10.
The revenue and state contribution portions of the spending plan are both up from 2013-14. Revenues have increased by just over $26,000 to a figure of a little more than $4,849,000, while the state contribution of approximately $5,123,000 represents over $153,500 more than in the current budget.
“There will be some adjustments for the communities, as I told them there would be,” Superintendent Alan Smith said. About $18,000 in changes needed to be made in the budget, which will have an impact on the contributions for Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Sebec. “All the communities have a decrease, it’s just not as great,” he said about the adjustments made to the four assessments.
During his report, Board Chair Rick Johnston told his fellow school board members that they would likely have questions from the community on the RSU 68 2015 budget. He said they should explain the reasoning for having the spending plan increased.
In other business, Smith said he wanted to publicly recognize SeDoMoCha Middle School grade eight social studies teacher Dyan McCarthy-Clark for being named Piscataquis County Teacher of the Year.