SAD 46 officials starting work on 2022 budget

DEXTER — A week before the SAD 46 budget committee begins its work on developing the spending plan for the 2021-22 academic year, Superintendent Kevin Jordan told the full school board the district may be looking at an approximate $170,000-plus combined reduction from a pair of subsidy sources.

During a Feb. 4 meeting conducted over Zoom Jordan said he received the district’s ED 279 report from the state “and it was not necessarily kind to us.” He said the state subsidy is down by about $149,000 from the current year’s $10,950,000-plus total.

Jordan said the local share needed to receive the state subsidy is down by approximately $23,000. In the current budget nearly $2.97 million was raised proportionally by the SAD 46 communities of Dexter, Exeter, Garland and Ripley.

The superintendent said the state will be increasing the subsidy for the Tri-County Technical Center by $100,000, but these funds cannot be used for any other part of the SAD 46 budget.

“So there’s lots of conversation for the budget committee when they start meeting next week,” Jordan said. The group’s first meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Jordan said another item for the budget committee to consider is the possible purchase of up to three school buses. He said SAD 46 has applied to the state vehicle program the last few years but has not been successful. Under the state program, districts buy a bus or multiple vehicles with local funds and a year later the state reimburses the costs.

SAD 46 will receive about $1.9 million from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund in the latest round of federal stimulus financing. Jordan said these monies can be used for COVID-19-related expenses as well as “addressing the learning loss in students” as a result of the pandemic.

“So we have started a conversion there and we will have a conversation with the board,” he said. The superintendent said these funds do not need to be expended until September 2023 so there is plenty of time to plan.

In other business, Jordan said the grade 9-16 comprehensive new school committee met over Zoom on Jan. 12 with members of the facility committees from SAD 46, SAD 4 in Guilford and the Milo-based SAD 41. He said much of this meeting was to get newer school board members familiar with the project that — if approved by the Maine Department of Education — would build a regional institution with state funds to offer a number of academic and vocational programs. There are numerous steps still to go in the project, including formal votes by citizens of the individual districts on joining.

“We are moving into our next meeting talking about what is one of our toughest conversations, which is governance,” Jordan said about what a board of directors for a regional comprehensive high school might look like with three school districts involved. 

Jordan said that he and Curriculum Coordinator Matt Drewette-Card spoke about the project with SAD 41 directors during their monthly meeting the evening before.