ROCKLAND, Maine — The proposed $26,150,000 budget for the Rockland-area school district calls for eight fewer positions and would result in a property tax hike of less than 3 percent for the communities.
The spending and revenue package will go to the Regional School Unit 13 board on Thursday evening for a final vote. The board’s finance committee reviewed the package Tuesday night and sent it on to the full board.
Business Manager Peter Orne said there would be a net loss of eight positions in the proposed 2016-2017 budget compared with the 2015-2016 budget. The cuts include a couple of special education positions, a few teachers, and two administration assistants, resulting from the consolidation of school buildings. Superintendent John McDonald said he expected layoffs would be avoided largely through attrition as staff retire but that he would not know until later in the year.
The $26,150,000 budget represents a $909,250 (3.6 percent) increase in expenditures. Salary increases account for $833,000 of that.
The position cuts will save $392,500.
The amount of property taxes to be raised by the five RSU 13 municipalities will increase $535,577, a 2.6 percent increase. Rockland will see the smallest increase — $162,124.
“This is a massive victory,” Rockland board member Jesse Butler said. “If we can’t get the public to support this we’re doing something wrong.”
McDonald reminded board members that if they had not approved the school consolidation and energy efficiency plan, the increase would have been much greater.
The district’s two high schools will merge into one — Oceanside in Rockland — for the start of the next school year. The merger of the two middle schools also will occur.
Thomaston residents will vote June 14 to close the Lura Libby School building in that town. Those students will be relocated to the nearby Thomaston Grammar School building.
Thomaston school board member Ron Gamage said he expects that voters will support the Lura Libby closure. If the closure did not occur, the town would pick up the additional $323,000 that it would cost to keep it open.
The districtwide budget meeting at which the public sets the amount that will go to referendum on June 14 is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, at Oceanside East auditorium.