SAD 46 directors approve $16.5M budget
DEXTER — A proposed 2024-25 SAD 46 budget totaling $16,532,495 was approved by the school board during a May 1 meeting at the Ridge View Community School.
The school board also set the annual public budget meeting for 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 30 in the Ridge View gymnasium. The figure approved that evening will be moved to a referendum on Tuesday, June 11 in the SAD 46 communities of Dexter, Exeter, Garland, and Ripley.
The approximately $16.5 million budget for 2024-25 is up by 3.16 percent from the current academic year’s $16,025,870 figure.
Superintendent Kevin Jordan said the proposed budget represents a 5.79 percent increase to the total local assessment when compared to the $3,472,048 for 2023-24.
He said each of the four towns would see an increase in its respective share of the budget. Dexter’s would be up by $76,794 from approximately $1,980,000, for Exeter the increase would be $25,740 from approximately $606,000, Garland would have a $71,585 increase from nearly $544,000; and Ripley’s share of the SAD 46 budget would be $27,026 more than about $342,000 from the year before.
The school board also gave its approval to the district’s $71,885 proportional share of the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Cooperative budget. The 2024-25 amount is up slightly from $70,738.
“It’s the best bargain in all the budgeting we have,” Jordan said as SAD 46 and three other districts fund the cooperative offering a variety of adult education and enrichment programs.
The superintendent reminded the directors and audience members that “approval of the budget is a 2-part process.” Part one is the district budget meeting at the end of the month, and part two is the June 11 referendum.
“Our budget needs to be approved twice by the people,” Jordan said.
The school board needs to validate the referendum totals within 48 hours, so the directors’ June meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12 instead of the typical first Wednesday of the month.
In other business, Jordan said the facilities committee met with the similar group from SAD 4 of Guilford last month to discuss the regional comprehensive high school project and the potential for partnerships between the two high schools moving forward. Both Dexter Regional High School and Piscataquis Community Secondary School are seeing slow declines in student enrollment and have aging facilities.
Several years ago representatives from SAD 46 and SAD 4, SAD 41 of Milo, and RSU 64 of Corinth met with the Maine Department of Education and were told they needed to cover the estimated $800,000 costs of an engineering study and other planning efforts before receiving $100 million in state funding to build the project. MDOE officials said the state would not fund the planning expenses, with these instead to be divided between the school units.
No districts are locked in as public votes on formally joining would be taken in the future if the project continues to progress.
The four districts were hesitant to spend around $200,000 apiece, and since the possibility of the MDOE funding a to-be-determined portion of the costs has been raised. Jordan said they are still awaiting word on a decision.
More than a half decade ago SAD 46 headed up an application between itself and SAD 4 for a $100 million first-of-its-kind secondary institution integrated with a career and technical school along with the University of Maine System and the Maine Community College System, and it would support industry training programs. Later on in the process SAD 41 joined in a non-binding agreement and then RSU 64 did likewise.
At first projects based in the Madawaska and Houlton areas ranked higher, but these proposed schools did not progress as residents could not agree on where to put the campus.
The two district facility committees discussed the possibilities of submitting a consolidated application to the Maine Capital School Construction program for a new high school and technical center to serve SAD 46 and SAD 4. This application would be due in June 2025.
The school board also voted to accept a $2,000 donation from the Plummer Memorial Foundation to fund a new ice machine at the high school.
Principal Stephen Bell thanked the Plummer Memorial Foundation for the contribution. He said the ice machine “has been on our wish list for many, many years” and the new model will be used by the school nurse, athletic trainer, and others.