SALEM — Voters in Avon, Kingfield, Phillips and Strong are set to decide the Maine School Administrative District 58 budget at a districtwide meeting planned for July 20 at Mount Abram High School, followed by a validation vote in August.
The MSAD 58 board of directors is recommending a $13.2 million budget for 2026‑27.
The validation referendum is scheduled for Aug. 10 to approve or reject the action taken at the July 20 meeting. Polls are scheduled to be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in all four towns.
The proposed budget is the same spending plan that the board had recommended prior to a budget meeting May 18.
At that meeting, voters cut $472,000 out of the budget. The reduced budget was then rejected at the June 9 validation referendum by a vote of 525 in favor and 576 opposed.
The proposed $13.2 million budget increases spending by $667,000, or 5.32 percent, from the current fiscal year. It would raise the district’s overall assessment by 6.13 percent.
Specifically, it would increase Avon’s assessment to $693,000, up $27,426, or 4.12 percent; Kingfield’s to $2.3 million, up $81,467, or 3.67 percent; Phillips’ to $1.4 million, up $125,792, or 9.77 percent; and Strong’s to $1.4 million, up $103,291, or 7.74 percent.
MSAD 58 Superintendent Laura Columbia said the warrant for the next budget meeting is also expected to include articles to transfer $500,000 from the fund balance into three reserves: $100,000 each for newly created special education and technology accounts, and $300,000 for the capital reserve.
The transfers were proposed at the May 18 meeting but rejected by those in attendance. Another $700,000 in transfers — into fuel, insurance and capital reserve accounts — was approved.
The earliest MSAD 58 will have a budget for fiscal 2027 is August, so the district will operate on this year’s $12.6 million budget beginning July 1. That will continue until a budget is approved and validated by referendum.
