OAKLAND — Residents of the communities that comprise Regional School Unit 18 could not vote on the 2019 budget Thursday evening at the district budget meeting because of an error made on the warrant articles.
The expenditures listed in articles six and seven had been transposed. Since motions can be made only to decrease and not increase an expenditure, the error could not be corrected at the time of the meeting.
The school board will have to schedule another meeting in the coming weeks so that voters can decide whether to give the budget their initial approval before it goes to a June 12 referendum for the final decision.
The budget recommended by the school board totals $37,580,390 — which is up by $1,347,294, or 3.72 percent, from the current fiscal year’s spending plan. The increase is being driven largely by the payments the district will make on the principle and interest of the $13.9 million bond to fix facilities and build an athletic complex that voters approved in November. The combined payments will total $1,989,334 for the fiscal year.
The nearly 45 residents from Belgrade, China, Oakland, Sidney and Rome had voted and approved five articles before an error involving the articles asking for authorization of the expenditures relating to the system administration and the school administration was discovered. System administration is made up of the superintendent’s office staff, and school administration refers to principals, vice principals and other administrators at each school.
The error was spotted when a resident asked why there was an increase of 131.46 percent in the system administration from the current fiscal year. Administators then determined that the $1,933,014 listed for system administration and $842,765 listed for school administration were incorrect; the numbers were reversed.
The funds proposed for system administration total $842,765. The expenditure proposed for school administration totals $1,933,014.
After a few minutes of discussion, the board and administration decided to vote on the rest of the articles that did not relate to articles six and seven — leaving six other articles, including authorizing the budget, for a later meeting.
The residents then approved five more articles before the board adjourned.
A date for the meeting to vote on the rest of the articles was not chosen Thursday night.
Emily Higginbotham — 861-9239
ehigginbotham@centralmaine.com
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