Greenville school budget hike won’t raise taxes, says superintendent

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GREENVILLE — The Greenville School Committee has endorsed a $3.45 million budget that’s 3.9 percent higher than last year.
    But Superintendent Beth Lorigan said that Greenville taxpayers won’t see their property taxes affected because of the hike. “We’ve had a healthy carry-forward balance for a number of years,” Lorigan told the Observer. “So we’ve taken $327,000 from that account to offset the increases, and that means a zero increase to Greenville taxpayers.”

    Unlike other area school units, Greenville didn’t see a huge decrease in state general purpose aid (GPA) this year. “We’re only down $4,460 compared to last year,” she said.
    According to the Maine Department of Education, GPA is based on several factors including “available funds and local factors such as student enrollment and property values.”
    There are 204 students currently enrolled at Greenville Consolidated School.
    Lorigan said she only anticipates adding one new staff member – a language teacher – since the school population probably won’t change very much in the new academic year. “We have 12 graduating next month and 11 kindergarten students coming in this fall,” she said.
    The recommended regular instruction account of $1.34 million is 1.4 percent more than last year, primarily due to a $37,687 increase in the benefit package because of higher insurance premiums.
    The special education budget is up 1.5 percent; extracurricular activities are up by 6.7 percent; the student and staff report budget is down 3.1 percent; and the school administrative figures are up 1.2 percent.
    The facilities maintenance account is up by 11.3 percent, but part of the reason is the debt service incurred by the new pellet boiler system.
    The total price was around $1.9 million with part of the cost picked up by a $750,000 federal grant administrated by the Maine Forest Service. Voters approved a $1.2 million bond issue to pay for the project so the school system has debt service payments of $76,552 in principal and $57,149 in interest this year.
    But Lorigan said that much of the interest is reimbursed by the state, since it was a capital project. “Plus, we’re saving a considerable amount of money compared to what we were paying for fuel oil,” she added.
    Overall energy costs also decreased after Nickerson Elementary School closed in 2011 and the younger grades moved into the junior-senior high school building.
    The 16-article school budget warrant will be voted on at the annual town meeting on Monday, June 2.