Preliminary work continues on 2018-19 RSU 68 finances
DOVER-FOXCROFT — With the first 2018-19 academic year budget meeting set for the end of the month, RSU 68 officials are awaiting financial figures from the Maine Department of Education.
“We have been told the ED 279, which determines what we get from the state, will be coming out on Feb. 1,” Superintendent Stacy Shorey said during a Jan. 2 school board meeting. “We will see if that happens.”
The current RSU 68 budget totals $10,817,189 an increase of about $302,100 from the year before. The spending plan is made up of nearly $5,537,900 in state contributions and another $5,279,294 in local revenues with the four RSU 68 communities having a combined local assessment of just under $4,634,570. This figure — comprised of local contributions, additional local monies and funding for adult education — is up by about $87,900.
Shorey said she also had an update for the school board on the efforts of Atkinson to withdraw from the Milo-based SAD 41 and join RSU 68.
“They really want to make sure we can support their children, they are still in the withdrawal process from SAD 41,” Shorey said. The superintendent said there is nothing new in the documentation, but she passed out items for the directors to review and possibly vote on next month stating RSU 68 would be willing to educate Atkinson students once the community withdraws from SAD 41.
In other business, Foxcroft Academy Head of School Arnold Shorey told RSU 68 officials that “there’s a lot more activity starting at the job site at Brothers Chevrolet” which was purchased last year by the Libra Foundation. The foundation acquired the parcel on West Main Street to convert the building into an all-season indoor recreation facility with artificial turf and construct an indoor ice rink and connecting building.
“We were reassured these things are going on,” Shorey said, as Foxcroft Academy is working with the Libra Foundation on the facility located just up the street from the secondary school campus.
The head of school said more news on the project will be announced in the future, possibly in time for the next school board meeting in early February.
Existing plans have the Libra Foundation maintaining facility ownership with Foxcroft Academy — which hosts many of Dover-Foxcroft’s youth recreation programs — to manage the sporting complex.