ROCKLAND, Maine — A $26 million Regional School Unit 13 budget for 2016-17 gained approval Tuesday night and heads to the polls in two weeks.
The administration also provided welcome news to residents at the meeting, saying $250,000 less would need to be raised in property taxes than originally recommended by the board in April.
Forty people turned out for the annual districtwide budget meeting at Oceanside High School in Rockland. The only changes made were to reduce $190,000 from the debt repayment account and to increase the amount of expected revenues by $60,000.
No more than three people voted against any of the 17 individual budget articles.
There were attempts made by the public to cut items, but those efforts failed.
Sonja Sleeper of South Thomaston had proposed cutting all $245,000 budgeted for the gifted and talented programs but could not muster someone to second her motion.
Those in attendance also voted against Sleeper’s proposal to cut $400,000 set aside for teacher training.
Tim Sternberg of Owls Head sought to reduce the transportation budget.
“There’s still a lot of fat on the bone,” said Sternberg, whose father was superintendent in the district from the late 1970s through the 1980s.
Sternberg said that buses are dropping off high school students at their homes. He asked why the district was not adhering to a prior policy that any student living within a mile of the high school would have to walk.
Steve Roberts, chairman of the RSU 13 board, said the district does not have a 1-mile policy and that streets and sidewalks in Rockland are not plowed sufficiently, so for safety reasons, students are picked up and dropped off regardless of where they live.
The budget goes to the polls on June 14 in Rockland, Thomaston, South Thomaston, Owls Head and Cushing for a yes or no vote.
The $26 million budget represents a $719,250 increase in expenditures, or less than 3 percent. Salary increases account for nearly all of the increase.
If the budget is approved as is, the amount of property taxes to be raised by the five RSU 13 municipalities will increase by 1.4 percent, or $286,000. Rockland would pay an additional $61,000, which is less than 1 percent more than the 2015-16 budget. This increase would bring the city’s annual payment to the school district to nearly $8.8 million.
Thomaston would pay an additional $112,000; South Thomaston, $81,000; and Owls Head, $47,000. Cushing would pay $15,000 less.
The proposed budget would result in a net loss of nine positions. 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 Tuesday he expected layoffs would be avoided largely through attrition as staff retire.