JAY — Voters at the Regional School Unit 73 budget meeting Thursday approved nearly $27 million in spending for the coming school year.
The final budget of $26,761,629 is a 2.89 percent increase over the current $26,009,354 spending plan and remains below the 3.1 percent inflation rate for the Northeast.
Shari Ouellette, chair of the RSU 73 board of directors, said after the meeting that the vote turned out about “as expected.”
She added, “The important vote will be on the 28th,” and noted that annual budget meetings are usually well attended by school district employees.
Voters are expected to decide the fate of the budget April 28 in a referendum using secret ballots in the district’s three towns: Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls.
Superintendent Scott Albert said he was pleased with the outcome.
“We always get good support from our towns,” he said.
The amount approved Thursday was $75,000 less than what appeared in the warrants signed March 12 by the directors. The reduction was made because the premium for the district’s employee insurance came in $75,000 less than Albert had expected. Voters amended the first budget article from the floor to reflect the change.
More than 120 people attended the meeting and worked through the 15 articles in about 40 minutes.
The crowd included several people who do not live in the district and could not vote on the articles.
All but one article was decided by a show of hands, and every article passed handily.
The one article requiring a secret ballot passed 75-9. It asked voters to raise $5,263,873 above the amount the state will fund under the Essential Programs and Services, or EPS, program.
RSU 73 expects to receive about $15 million in 2026-27 through EPS.
State law requires a secret ballot for any spending outside what EPS covers.
The $5,263,873 is not reimbursed by the state.
The district also expects to receive about $140,000 in other revenue, such as tuition from out‑of‑district students, and will use $1 million from its cash balance to help limit the budget increase.
The total taxation expected per town is: Jay, $4.647 million, an increase of $533,000; Livermore, $3.189 million, an increase of $262,000; and Livermore Falls, $2.861 million, an increase of $148,000.
Major articles approved Thursday included: regular instruction (teacher salaries and benefits), $9.8 million; special education, $6 million; student and staff support, $4.2 million; facilities maintenance, $3.1 million; transportation and buses, $1.9 million; and school administration, $1.5 million.
The facilities maintenance budget was driven up by major upgrades, including new roofs and new boilers at the Spruce Mountain Primary School in Livermore. The combined cost of the replacements is about $1.5 million, nearly half of the facilities maintenance budget.
All articles passed overwhelmingly, with no more than half a dozen votes against any of them.
The final budget is about $77,000 less than the spending plan Albert submitted to the board in February. His plan, in turn, was $602,862 lower than the requests administrators had submitted to him. Albert’s original proposal totaled $26,838,393.
The board voted 8-5 on Feb. 26 to direct Albert to find another $200,000 in cuts. In reviewing the budget, he found a couple of duplicated spending items and learned the district would not have to pay for one special education student to be placed outside the district.
The savings came to about $55,000, and the board accepted it without pressing for the full $200,000.
The RSU 73 board is scheduled to hold its next regular meeting Thursday, April 9, at Spruce Mountain High School.
