Proposed RSU 68 budget rises slightly to $11.97M

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The proposed RSU 68 budget for the 2020-21 academic year is up slightly to a figure of $11,970,877, as presented by Superintendent Stacy Shorey during an April 14 school board meeting at the SeDoMoCha School streamed live on Youtube. The $11.97 million figure represents an increase of 1.58 percent from the current year’s budget of $11,784,238.

The 2020-21 spending plan is set to be approved by the directors at a future meeting. For the public vote typically RSU 68 will hold its district budget meeting in late May and then the referendum for the total budget amount on the second Tuesday of June to coincide with the state ballot and primary. Gov. Janet Mills has moved the June primary back to July 14, so the timeline for citizen voting with the two-step budget approval process in RSU 68 is still to be determined. 

At the school board meeting Shorey presented directors (others participated remotely in accordance prohibiting gatherings of more than 10) with budget packets and said the 2020-21 finances have been developed over the last several months with those involved operating under guiding principles of making transparent, student-centered budget decisions that are also fiscally responsible to taxpayers and making budget decisions that reflect the district mission statement.

“The initial work that was done started prior to the holiday break in December,” Shorey said as staff members provided their administrators with a list of classroom needs and wishes for the next school year. 

She said the finance committee has met since then to develop the budget and is bringing forward the $11.97 million total.

The combined assessment for the four district communities is up by $2,254 (0.03 %) from 2019-20 to a figure of $4,706,937. Two towns would have decreases in local assessments and the other two would see increases, all within 1.5% of the current year’s assessments.

This breaks down to a figure of $2,812,069 for Dover-Foxcroft, 0.28% less; $626,236 for Charleston, a decrease of 1.04%; $584,769 for Monson, an increase of 1.2%; and a sum of $682,862 for Sebec, 1.31% more then for the current year.

In other business, RSU 68 officials learned about how remote learning has been going with this method of instruction to be used through the end of classes in early June.

“Obviously we are fully engaged with online learning and making use of Rowell’s and Weymouth Transportation so I want to publicly thank them,” Foxcroft Academy Head of School Arnold Shorey said with the two companies delivering meals and educational materials across the district area.

“The students miss the staff and the staff miss the students so if there’s a silver lining it’s an appreciation of both sides of education,” he said. The head of school said about 80% of students at the secondary school are engaged in online learning.

“Our hearts go out to the seniors because they are missing a lot of events,” Shorey said. “I have made the promise, and the trustees are on board, that no matter what we are going to have a graduation.” He said Foxcroft Academy has never missed commencement exercises in its 197-year history and the 2020 graduation could be held in late June or a date beyond.

Forty boarding students, 26 of whom are seniors, are residing in the dorms and none have fallen ill, Shorey said.

When asked, he said students are still being graded on their remote assignments. He said the approximate 20 percent not engaged in online learning may be taking part in academic support programs when classes resume in the fall to help them meet standards.

SeDoMoCha School Principal Adam Gudroe said about 90 percent of elementary students are participating in daily learning and at the middle school level the rate is about 75 percent. He said there are barriers to participation but these are being worked on, such as by establishing hotspots in the area.

Gudroe said the formal grading criteria will be posted at sedomocha.org.

The school board also signed a letter of intent with UGE International concerning solar panels for SeDoMoCha, likely to be placed on the middle school roof.

“The letter of intent is really about exclusivity for us to move forward so they can give us pricing,” Stacy Shorey said. “They will look at the roof and then give us prices,” she said, as district officials can then make a decision to move forward with the project or not.

“For them to do that they just want to know if we are serious about moving forward and that’s the only obligation we have,” Shorey said.

“We’re not committing to anything with this vote, we’re just letting them take a look and we won’t talk with another company,” board member Rob Higgins said.

The letter of intent with UGE International is in place for the next year.