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MSAD 1 residents voted Wednesday to advance the Presque Isle-based school district’s $33 million budget to a June referendum.
The budget is $1.4 million higher than last year’s, owing to a 3% rise in salaries, 8% health insurance hike, the addition of all-day kindergarten and one-time expenses associated with a consolidation effort that will close the nearly 70-year-old Zippel Elementary School and move students into the district’s other buildings.
Most of the additional expenses will be covered by revenue raised from non-local sources, such as a $691,000 state subsidy increase, and about $500,000 the district applied to the budget from its undesignated funds to lessen the tax burden, but roughly $70,000 in additional funding will fall on local taxpayers to raise.
That means an average property tax increase of 0.72% across Presque Isle, Castle Hill, Chapman, Mapleton and Westfield, the five communities that make up the district.
The uptrend will fall disproportionately on Mapleton, where increased valuations mean residents will pay for nearly 18% of the district’s tax levy, up from 15% a year prior.
Because of that, some residents of Westfield and Chapman may actually see the school portion of their tax bills slightly decrease.
The addition of all-day kindergarten will make MSAD 1 the last district in Aroostook County to add the programming, a feat it’s been trying to accomplish for a decade.
It intends to fund the program using savings realized from closing Zippel Elementary at the end of the current school year. Superintendent Ben Greenlaw has previously estimated the district will save $158,000 annually after this year by shuttering the school, which houses students in third through fifth grades.
MSAD 1 will add two teachers and three ed techs to support all-day kindergarten. The district will also add a fifth seventh-grade teacher next school year to accommodate a larger class.
Five currently unfilled positions, including two teachers, two custodian/bus drivers and a cook, have been eliminated in the budget.
Other revenue increases include a one-time $113,620 contribution from the state for economically disadvantaged students.
The budget validation referendum will be held on June 9, in conjunction with state and local primaries.
