RSU 68 looking at $15M budget

DOVER-FOXCROFT — RSU 68 officials are looking at a proposed $15,033,423 budget for the 2025-26 academic year, as presented by Superintendent Stacy Shorey during a meeting Tuesday at the SeDoMoCha School. The approximate $15 million figure is up by $794,666 or 5.2 percent from the current year’s total.

Shorey said staff passed in their wants and wishes in December and administrators put together their budget requests in January, with the school board’s finance committee meeting that month and in February and March.

She said RSU 68’s state funding is up by $445,857 from $7,878,889 in 2024-25. The contribution to be sought from the four district communities will be $5,000,822. This $5 million figure represents an increase of $186,798 or 3.88 percent.

Each town would have an increased respective share of the proposed 2025-26 finances. For Charleston its portion would be $661,598 or a 5.76 percent increase; Dover-Foxcroft’s would be $2,943,721 or 3.11 percent more; Monson’s would be $671,522 or up 5.26 percent; and Sebec’s share would be $727,979 for an increase of 4.66 percent.

Typically the school board votes on the budget at its May meeting. Later that month would be the annual district budget meeting, with the total spending plan approved then moved to a referendum in June for final approval.

RSU 68 residents approved a 2024-25 budget totaling $14,238,768 by a combined count of 941-313 across Charleston, Dover-Foxcroft, Monson, and Sebec at the June 2024 referendum. That figure was up by $855,004, or 6.5 percent, from the 2023-24 total of $13,383,764.

The $14.2 million was made up of $7,878,889 from the state — a $427,406 increase — and $6,359,879 in various local revenue sources. This included a $4,033,235 local contribution and another $717,481 in local additional monies (those above what the state requires and approved by a specific warrant article). The local contribution was up by $79,640 while the local additional amount was $70,000 more.

In other business, SeDoMoCha School Principal Cameron Archer mentioned several items in his report.

Archer said the annual Pi Day celebration was held on March 14 with “45-50 minutes of kids going crazy and pieing each other and pie eating contests.”

Grade-level winners of the pi recitation contest could choose a staff member to throw a pie at, and Archer said he was among the pie victims. “It’s all in good fun and it’s one of my favorite assemblies,” he said.

One student correctly recited 415 digits of the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Archer said the middle school unified basketball and wrestling seasons concluded the week prior. The unified basketball team was able to get all six games in, and the Eagle wrestling squad finished in second place at the Penquis League championship.

Next week spring sports will begin. Archer said 127 students have signed up for baseball and softball and track and field with 56 for track. When asked he said there will be both A and B teams for baseball and softball.

Foxcroft Academy Assistant Head of School for Academics Jonathan Pratt introduced seniors Jaxson Zimmerman and Grace Greene who both shared portions of their portfolios. Pratt said the portfolios are a graduation requirement with grade 12 students addressing the Foxcroft Academy mission statement by identifying what they learned and how this will help them be successful after high school.

Zimmerman said he plans to study nutritional sciences at Southern Maine Community College and he credited an anatomy and physiology class as his best work with learning to solve problems by critical thinking. 

He also mentioned the discipline he learned playing football for the Ponies and the mental tenacity he developed through practices and games. 

Greene said she hopes to be a radiology technician and she is considering a pair of colleges in Florida. She said she learned responsibility at Foxcroft Academy such as keeping her grades up while being busy as a three-sport athlete and being involved in other extracurriculars. 

During her high school years Greene said she learned respect for everyone.

“No matter what, you can always personally connect to someone,” she said, planning to use this lesson in her career.