RSU 39, the Caribou-based school district that also includes Stockholm, is projecting a near 7% increase in its budget for the next school year, one year after voters rejected two versions at referendum.
The approximately $1.7 million hike would be the fourth consecutive year the district raises its budget by more than $900,000. It’s set to raise the total budget to $26.2 million.
It’s unclear how much of the increase will fall on local taxpayers to cover.
More than $1.5 million of the increase comes from a rise in salary and benefits for district staff pre-negotiated in a collective bargaining agreement. Other drivers include an 11.5% increase in health insurance and a 10% rise in property and casualty insurance.
The total marks a drop from the roughly 9.5% increase RSU 39 had projected at its first budget workshop weeks earlier.
To achieve that decrease, the district implemented a staffing hold, delayed some facility projects to seek outside funding, reduced purchases of supplies and consolidated software platforms.
As it stands, 81% of the budget is made up of fixed costs that have zero or minimal room for adjustment. To reach a flat budget over the previous year, RSU 39 would have to eliminate 18-20 staff positions, business manager Cristy St. Peter said at a budget workshop Wednesday.
“I feel very confident about where we’re sitting right now [with] the increase of 6.85%,” St. Peter said. “I recognize that it’s not going to be popular … I wasn’t happy with my insurance increasing by 11.5%. I’m not happy with the increases either.
“I’m not saying it justifies it, but I do say that I have done a good job at justifying where the increases are coming from. And I’m very proud that there is no cut in our staffing.”
In a two-hour, at times terse meeting, school board members described their position as a zero-sum game. They insisted that they understand the taxpayer anxiety and the cost of raising the budget, but also don’t want to diminish the district’s education and eliminate jobs.
“I’m not comfortable sitting up here and putting it at a level that we have to cut even five positions,” board member Jan Tompkins said. “If that’s the case, then I want the community to carry that on their shoulders.”
“It’s not just the money,” board member Lou Willey followed. “It’s people’s lifestyles. It’s their lives.”
A handful of residents who attended the meeting asked the board to find ways to reduce the increase by even 2% or 3%.
“It’s going to hurt no matter what. We have to weigh the amount of pain,” a Caribou resident told the school board. “I picked moving to Caribou because of how good the school was here, and I want it to maintain that quality. I have to weigh that with the ability to feed [my children] and heat the house.”
The budget must pass two more hurdles before going to referendum. The school board will vote on whether to recommend the budget — which may contain minor changes — on May 6. The public will vote on each article at a determination meeting on May 20, with a final vote scheduled for June 9.
Caribou voters, like in many other school districts around the state, rejected the budget twice last summer before finally approving a third revision in September, after the school year had already begun.
