The Rangeley Lakes Regional School District (RSU #78) recently adopted its first school budget for the 2010-11, school year. After recommendations from the administration, input from community members and staff at several board meetings, the board adopted a $3,403,880.08 budget on May 4. This is the first combined budget of the four towns in RSU #78, Dallas Plantation, Magalloway Plantation, Rangeley and Sandy River Plantation.

It has been a very difficult year to develop a reasonable school budget that addresses these challenging economic times while maintaining a quality educational program for our children. State revenues declined in the current year budget and will continue to decline further next year.

What Are the Factors Impacting the Proposed Increases to the 2010-11 Budget?

As a result of the consolidation of the four towns, costs that were previously budgeted in the individual towns’ school budgets and several onetime costs have needed to be incorporated into the combined RSU budget.

1. $263,022 one-time cost: This amount was added to the budget to cover summer salaries and benefits. In prior years 100 percent of this liability was the sole responsibility of the Town of Rangeley.

2. $23,000 one-time cost: This increase is for accounting software, audit, insurance and legal fees.

3. $53,000 transportation increase: This is the result of combining the previous transportation costs from all four of the town’s transportation budget lines.

How Do the Costs of the 2010-11 Proposed Budget Compare to the 2009-10 Budgets

Since the 2010-11 budget is combined from all four towns, it is difficult to make a direct comparison with each of the budgets. However, the combined budgets of the four towns for 2009-10 is approximately $3,085,343. Comparing the proposed 2010-11 budget of $3,403,880 and subtracting the one-time costs ($286,022) due to consolidation, the actual increase in the proposed 2010-11 budget in comparison to the 2009-10 budgets is $32,515.

What Reductions Have Been Made to the Proposed 2010-11 Budget?

The RSU Board has made the following reductions to the proposed 2010-11 budget.

1. $65,000 —elimination of 1.5 teaching positions.

2. $28,000 —elimination of a Special Education Ed. Tech. position

3. $3,000 —reduction in substitute salaries

4. $3,000 —reduction in field trips, supplies and other areas

These reductions decrease the original proposed budget by approximately $99,000.

How Do Balances Impact the Proposed Budget?

In accordance with the RSU Reorganization Plan, any balances at the end of this year must be returned to each town. Therefore, while there are no balances available for the RSU to use in the proposed 2010-11 budget, any balances at the end of this year in each of the four town’s school budgets may be used to decrease a town’s assessment in the proposed budget. This is a decision that each town must make.

What Is the Impact of the Proposed Budget on Each of the Towns?

Using the Essential Program and Services State Funding Formula, each town is required to raise a total local amount in order to receive state and other federal funds. Towns must also raise additional local funds necessary to support education that are above the EPS funding formula.

The cost sharing based on the EPS formula is determined by the operating costs and the percent of students. The percentage for each town to support education is:
Dallas Plantation — 21.66 percent
Magalloway Plantation — 2.02 percent
Town of Rangeley — 70.78 percent
Sandy River Plantation — 5.54 percent

The total amount of funds required to be raised and the additional local allocation for each town to support the proposed budget is:

Dallas Plantation — $660,575.10
Magalloway Plantation — $61,605.02
Town of Rangeley — $2,158,611.21
Sandy River Plantation — $168,955.75

In total, $3,049,747.08 needs to be raised locally between the four towns while $354,133 will then come from the state and other revenue sources such as tuition.

While the task of building the budget has been difficult even daunting at times, I would like to thank those people that have provided input and participated in the process of developing the RSU #78 budget. I would encourage people from all four towns to attend the budget meeting (May 25) to vote on the warrant articles as well as participate in the budget validation vote (June 8). If you would like more information or have questions about the adopted budget, please feel free to contact the following RSU board members or myself.
Brian Foster, Superintendent of Schools RSU #78
Dallas Plantation: William Roy; Nicholas Gumprecht
Magalloway Plantation: Carol Hall
Rangeley: Virginia Nuttall; Barbara Burgess; Harold
Schaetzle; Laura Haley; Pam Ellis
Sandy River Plantation: Jennifer Farmer;
Rick Godaire