SAD 41 officials to start work on 2026-27 budget
MILO — SAD 41 officials are starting preparations on the 2026-27 budget and the public is invited to provide feedback for next year’s finances.
Budget workshops will be held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 28, Feb. 25 and March 25 in the Penquis Valley School cafeteria, Superintendent Darcie Fournier announced during a Jan. 7 school board meeting held over Zoom (classes were canceled with a snow day).
“This is the time to roll up your sleeves and get your budget figured out and together,” Fournier said about the workshops.
The school board has a finance committee, but Fournier encouraged all the directors to attend the workshops. The community is invited as well.
Those unable to attend can provide feedback on the budget via an online survey.
The link was posted on the district website earlier in the day Jan. 7 as Fournier invited community members to share input and perspectives by completing a brief feedback survey to help inform priorities and decision-making as the proposed budget is developed.
In the spring the school board will vote on a budget to bring to a district meeting. The total approved that day will then be moved to a referendum in the SAD 41 towns of Brownville, Lagrange and Milo.
In August an approximate $11.5 million budget for 2025-26 was approved by a single vote at 151-150 across the three communities.
The budget was approved 55-54 in Brownville, voted down 18-12 in Lagrange and passed 84-78 in Milo as SAD 41 residents headed to the polls for the second time last summer to make a decision on 2025-26 finances.
In June district citizens had voted down a proposed $11,907,487 budget for 2025-26 by a combined 219-118 count.
In other business, Penquis Valley Co-Principal Katie Joyner-Robertson gave an update on improvement in chronic absenteeism with this percentage having dropped to 30% through the end of November from last year’s rate of 36%.
In the board report from the building administrators a chronically absent student is defined as a pupil enrolled in a school and with a total number of absences — excused or unexcused — equal to or greater than 10% of the total number of days they have been enrolled during the school year.
Mentioning the 6% decrease in the Penquis Valley chronic absenteeism rate, Joyner-Robertson said it is important to note that 10 students included in this percentage have since unenrolled.
Several were in the process of moving and had not yet fully registered with their new districts, which temporarily kept them on the Penquis Valley enrollment and contributed to the absenteeism numbers. Overall, this reduction reflects the continued efforts of staff to monitor attendance closely, communicate with families and remove barriers that prevent students from attending school regularly.
“We hope to see these statistics improve in a significant way,” Joyner-Robertson said.
The school board also accepted the retirements of four long-time staff members, effective at the end of the school year: Debra Clukey, Jack Eastman, Dawn McLaughlin and Jeanne Murphy.
“We are going to lose some good ones at the end of the year, but good for them,” Board Chair Mary Lynn Kazyaka, herself a retired SAD 41 educator, said.