Work underway on 2026-27 SAD 4 budget

GUILFORD — SAD 4 officials have started developing the 2026-27 academic year budget.

School Board Chair Niki Fortier said the budget committee had its first meeting on March 2, during a board meeting on March 10 at Piscataquis Community Elementary School.

Budget committee meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. on March 23 and April 13 at PCES with the session next month set to be a public workshop with municipal officials and the public invited. 

The meeting will include a screening of the video “School Finance 101: Understanding the ED 279 Report” by Maine Department of Education Director of School Finance Paula Gravelle in which she walks through the process of the ED 279 Report, what the Essential Programs and Services funding model is and how to calculate the formula. The video is posted on the Maine School Management Association website at https://www.msmaweb.com/.

“We will do our best to answer questions after that,” Fortier said.

“We hope for the May meeting to have it be approved by the board,” she said about the district budget. If approved by the directors at that time, the spending plan would be moved to a district budget meeting shortly thereafter and the total would then be moved to a referendum vote in the SAD 4 towns of Abbot, Cambridge, Guilford, Parkman, Sangerville and Wellington.

“I think the changes are going to be helpful, it doesn’t completely resolve everything that needs to happen,” Superintendent Kelly MacFadyen said about adjustments in state funding formulas for Maine school districts that will go into effect after 2026-27.

For next year’s budget SAD 4 is set to receive about $6,481,000 in state funding, up by $234,727 or 3.8% MacFadyen said.

The required local contribution would also be up, approximately $3,121,000 from the current year’s $2,982,900.

“Local shares are growing faster than state aid,” the superintendent said. 

After turning down proposed 2025-26 budgets four times over the previous five months, SAD 4 voters approved a $9,491,905 spending plan in early November.

The combined count across the six district communities was 773-735. The vote, held on the same day as the state election, had more than double the turnout of the previous budget referendum vote the month prior when 620 ballots were cast.

The nearly $9.5 million budget was approved in Guilford 229-157, in Sangerville 227-163 and in Wellington 36-33. It was voted down in Abbot 90-152, in Cambridge 70-80 and in Parkman 115-150.

The fifth version of the SAD 4 budget was $9,231 less than the $9,501,135 figure voted down at the polls in mid-October via a 327-297 count across the six towns — the fourth time a proposed spending plan did not pass in the district.

The figure of just over $9.5 million was down from the $9,531,320 brought to voters at the previous two referendums in September and July and was about $250,000 less than the first budget of $9,752,463 that appeared on the June ballot.

The 2025-26 budget is up about 3% from the previous year, which had a total of $9,247,391. 

The approved budget of $9,491,905 has the combined towns’ local required share up to $2,982,900 for 2025-26, a $29,387 increase from the year before. A sum of $1,828,959 in local additional monies is part of the budget.

Each district community has its local required figure, an additional local amount, and costs for the Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Cooperative. SAD 4’s proportional share of the four-district regional program is $53,256 of nearly $450,000.

Four of the six district six towns saw an increased assessment in 2025-26. The total combined assessment is $4,865,115, which is down by $35,729 from 2024-25’s $4,900,844.

Abbot had a $675 decrease (0.07%) in its assessment to $936,866; Cambridge’s $342,908 proportional share of the SAD 4 budget is up $770 (0.23%); Guilford’s share is $1,291,789, down by $54,837 (4.07%); Parkman had a $20,469 decrease (2.17%) to $923,465; Sangerville’s $1,104,242 share is up $41,271 (3.88%); and Wellington’s $267,632 assessment represents a $1,789 increase (0.67%) from 2024-25.

In other business, PCES Principal Anita Wright reported, “One Book — One School continues, we are excited for that grand finale.”

This year’s One Book – One School shared family reading program features “The Mouse and the Motorcycle” by Beverly Clearly. Each PCES family received a copy of the book as did classrooms to read together.

Trivia questions from the previous night’s reading are part of the announcements and the first class to call in with the correct answer gets to have a replica mouse for the day. Despite being older, Wright has said the fifth and sixth graders still get very competitive and want to win the mouse.

One Book – One School will culminate in an evening program in the spring with games, crafts and food tying into the novel .

Wright said that some students find the program to be less exciting this year compared to the inaugural year in 2025. The plan is to alternate One Book — One School with the Bikes for Books program in different years. With Bikes for Books, students enter a ticket into a drawing for each title they read with grade-level winners receiving a brand new bicycle courtesy of area masons.

The hope is this alternating of programs every other year will inspire the students more, Wright said. 

“Healthwise it’s been a pretty good year, knock on wood,” District Nurse Wendy Viera said. The two schools have had the standard, everyday childhood viruses among the populations.

A partnership with Northern Light Acadia Hospital of Bangor will enable a counselor to come to campus to meet with 30-plus students signed up for the new program, Viera said. 

“There’s no cost to the district,” she said.

SAD 4 has a similar arrangement with the Katahdin Valley Health Center in which pupils in the youngest grades with vision needs are referred to the provider.