HERMON, Maine — School officials’ $12.4 million education spending plan for the fiscal year ahead received the first of two necessary approvals during the annual budget meeting recently at Hermon Middle School.
The proposed $12,402,315 school budget for 2015-16 reflects a 3.6 percent increase from this year, Superintendent Patricia Duran said Friday.
If adopted as is, the education spending plan will require $4,412,775 in local tax dollars, up $249,432, or nearly 6 percent, from this year’s local share of $4,163,344, Town Manager Roger Raymond noted in the budget overview he prepared for the town newsletter.
Raymond noted that the increased local portion of the school budget translates to an increase of $0.54 per $1,000 in property valuation.
In a letter to residents, Duran said that while the local increase was substantial, residents should understand that the state determines what a community must raise as its “local share” before it can receive the full subsidy determined to be the state’s share.
“This year, the state, not the local school committee, increased the local share for education by $196,827. This additional assessment is nonnegotiable,” she wrote.
Also nonnegotiable is that as of last year, the state shifted part of its share for teacher retirements to local districts, increasing Hermon’s cost by nearly $58,000.
Other contributors to the higher budget included increased costs for employee benefits, wages and salaries, the lease for a portable classroom, three more full-time teachers and part-time finance staff, replacement of a 17-year-old bus, and the need to budget future pay and benefit increases for all school personnel, whose contracts expire this year, Duran said. Contract negotiations are under way.
Duran said about 75 people attended Wednesday’s annual budget meeting and that all the 21 warrant articles were approved through a show of hands.
The second — and final — step in the approval process comes on June 9, when the budget validation referendum takes place. The polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
at Hermon Elementary School.