Revised $8.5M SAD 41 budget being brought to Wednesday’s district meeting

MILO — A little more than a month after the first version of the 2017-18 SAD 41 budget was voted down — by a combined total of 270 to 68 across the district communities of Atkinson, Brownville, Milo, and LaGrange — a revised spending plan will be brought to voters at a district budget meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 2 at the Penquis Valley School. The session will begin with an information meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the Walter E. Oakes Gymnasium, and the total budget approved on Aug. 2 will then go to a referendum in the four SAD 41 towns on Thursday, Aug. 10.

The total of the second proposed 2018-18 budget also equals $8,500,571, an increase of a little more than $181,500, but the local share for the four communities will be reduced by $263,000.

Earlier in the month Superintendent Michael Wright was informed by the Maine Department of Education that as part of the newly-approved state budget SAD 41 would be receiving $263,000 more in subsidy for the new academic year. During a July 12 meeting the school board passed a motion to use all these funds to reduce the assessment for the four district towns.

Together Atkinson, Brownville, Milo, and LaGrange will be responsible for $2,318,720 in local required, local additional and adult education monies. This figure represents an increase of about $33,714 from the previous school year, but the first version of the budget had the local share rising by nearly $297,100 to $2,582,104. The $263,000 in additional state subsidy is being applied here in order to reduce the town contributions.

In the budget to be voted on, via a dozen articles at the Aug. 2 meeting, Atkinson would have a $244,702 contribution for the 2017-18 spending plan or an increase of $5,794. Brownville’s total of $655,632 would be up by about $14,169. LaGrange would see a decrease of $2,251 to $368,163. Milo’s share of the SAD 41 budget would be $1,050,222 for an increase of just over $16,000 from 2016-17.