FORT KENT, Maine — After failing three times with voters since June, the SAD 27 board of directors approved a fourth version of a proposed 2015-2016 budget at its meeting Thursday night after officials found an additional $198,000 in cuts.
Many of the cuts in the new $11.8 million budget came from staffing and professional development around the district, which includes Fort Kent, Eagle Lake, Wallagrass, New Canada, St. John Plantation and St. Francis.
“This means all [district] cost areas except transportation and the technology center have been touched in making reductions in all the proposed budgets,” Lucie Tabor, SAD 27 finance director, said. “Every other cost area has been reduced to get this budget.”
The next district budget hearing is set for Oct. 27 with the referendum on Nov. 3.
Since June, SAD 27 voters have approved three different budgets at three successive town meetings and subsequently turned them down at referendum, most recently a $12.1 million proposal.
The district has operated month to month based on the budget approved at the most recent budget meeting in September.
“This new budget is a $507,000, or 4.1 percent, reduction from the last year,” Tabor said.
To get to the reduced budget, the board Thursday night approved cutting a district social worker to save $49,800, $19,000 in cuts to technology, cutting a $20,000 library aide position, and more than $10,000 in cuts to staff professional development.
The new superintendent, due to come on board at the middle of the month, will receive close to $16,500 a year less than the outgoing superintendent.
Other reductions came from cuts in secretarial and custodial staffing, combining positions, reducing adult education services and less support for a joint SAD 27-University of Maine at Fort Kent program in which high school students attend university classes.
The new budget proposal calls for a local share 6.5 percent above the $9.3 million SAD 27 will receive in state essential programs and services — or EPS — funding.
The remaining funds come through local municipal tax contributions.
“The EPS formula was designed to make sure there is an adequate [funding] baseline for districts to run their schools,” interim superintendent Peter Caron said. “It is reasonable to expect districts will be between 5 and 6 percent above what they get in EPS funds.”
Caron warned there are more cuts and reductions to come as the board starts to turn its attention to the 2016-2017 budget.
On Thursday, Caron and Tabor also presented a list of additional cuts recommended for the 2016-2017 budget totaling more than $250,000 in staff and service reductions.
Also on the table for next year’s budget are further cuts to athletic staff, administrative staff and early childhood programs.
In trying to come up with a budget that appeals to voters, the district also must contend with two member towns looking to withdraw from SAD 27, steadily decreasing enrollments and increased costs.
Both Eagle Lake and Wallagrass have entered into the formal withdrawal process, which can take up to a year to complete, Tabor said.
“The [budget] challenges are not going to go away,” Caron said.
Incoming Superintendent Ben Sirois said Thursday night he is excited about getting started, despite SAD 27’s budget situation.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” he said. “But I am ready for it.”
