SAD 46 directors approve $16.6M budget

DEXTER — The SAD 46 School Board approved a proposed $16,653,368 budget for the 2025-26 academic year during a meeting at the Ridge View Community School on May 7.

The directors also set the annual district budget meeting for 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 29 in the Ridge View gymnasium. The total approved that evening will be moved to a referendum vote on Tuesday, June 10 in the district communities of Dexter, Exeter, Garland and Ripley.

Superintendent Kevin Jordan said the $16.6 million figure was reduced by about $950,000 from the first draft of the 2025-26 budget. He said the total approved on May 7 is up by $120,873 or 0.73 percent from the current school year’s approximate $16.5 million amount. This spending plan was approved via a 344-196 count at last June’s referendum.

The budget proposal results in a 3.17 percent increase to the local assessment from 2024-25’s figure of $3,673,195. 

Each SAD 46 town would see an increase in its assessment, with the amounts based largely on the community’s valuation and enrollment numbers.

Dexter’s would be a $29,142 increase from about $2,057,000. Exeter’s share is up by $33,850 from nearly $632,000. Garland would have a $35,566 increase from just over $615,000. For Ripley an $18,148 increase would bring its portion of the 2025-26 SAD 46 budget to $387,000-plus.

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 11 instead of the typical first Wednesday of the month.

In other business, Jordan reported on the April 17 meeting grade 9-16 (post-secondary) new school joint facilities committee.

Facility committees from both SAD 46 and the Guilford-based SAD 4 are working on a new regional comprehensive high school application through the Maine Department of Education. Under the new proposal only two participating school districts are needed in the application  for a grade 9-16 (post-secondary) consolidated high school to the Maine Capital School Construction program instead of a minimum of three. 

“We’re working through the application for the new school that’s due in December,” Jordan said. How traditional classes will coincide with CTE programming is an aspect of the application still being finalized, the superintendent said.

Milo and Corinth area districts stopped pursuing the regional comprehensive high school with SAD 46 and SAD 4 last year. The SAD 41 School Board voted against putting approximately $133,300 of district funds toward startup costs and a site analysis for the pursuit of the school and discontinued its participation in the project.

That came two years after representatives from the four districts met with the MDOE 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. 

Last year the MDOE offered to fund half of the $800,000 costs with three districts being responsible for the other $400,000 — divided into three $133,300 shares for SAD 4, SAD 41, and SAD 46 after RSU 64 withdrew. SAD 41 decided it did not want to spend $133,000.

When asked, Jordan said he was unsure if the MDOE would fund a site survey for the SAD 46/SAD 4 project. “If you’re chosen to move forward they will sit down with you to discuss the details,” he said, saying he would only be speculating on site survey funding.

When asked Jordan said no funds have been expended so far, just the time of the committee members.

It’s been more than a half decade since 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. SAD 41 of the Milo area joined later in a non-binding agreement, and then RSU 64 of Corinth. 

Projects based in the Madawaska and Houlton areas originally ranked higher, but these proposed schools did not progress as residents could not agree on where to put the building.

The school board also approved Wednesday, June 18 as the last day of classes and June 20 as a staff workshop day.

The state requires school districts to have 175 school days and SAD 46 has a 178-day requirement.

“The holiday on Thursday is the reason we’re asking,” Jordan said about Juneteenth. 

Friday, June 20 would have been a half day after no classes on Juneteenth, but administrators felt this partial session would not be highly attended following the holiday. Instead the half days of June 18 and June 20 are being combined into one full day on June 18 with the workshop switching from the afternoon of June 18 to June 20.