Scott Hartford, a teacher at Spruce Mountain Middle School, speaks at Thursday night’s meeting of the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors meeting in Jay. He suggested using $6,000 for salary increases for two teachers who will have completed their master’s degree work this summer but didn’t file paperwork by the November 2022 deadline. Superintendent Scott Albert said it would break contracts and the measure failed to pass. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser

JAY — Voters in Regional School Unit 73 cut $100,000 from the proposed 2023-24 budget Thursday night.

Voters at the public hearing made three adjustments before approving all 19 budget articles.

Albert earlier this week shared that a recalculation by the state to correct errors in state funding for education meant Spruce Mountain school district taxpayers would see smaller increases than initially expected to fund local education. The additional $249,205 from the state meant the amount needed to be raised through assessments from the three towns could be decreased by that amount.

Regular instruction was cut $100,000 because the insurance rates from Anthem weren’t as high as expected, Superintendent Scott Albert said. “That’s good for us.”

That meant the amounts assessed to the towns could be reduced further.

Jay proposed assessment would be $4.55 million, up from $4.47 million for 2022-23.

Livermore’s proposed assessment would be $2.49 million, up from $2.46 million in 2022-23.

Livermore Falls’ assessment would be $2.29 million, down from $2.31 million in 2022-23.

An attempt to cut only $94,000 from regular instruction failed. Scott Hartford, who has been a teacher in the district for 35 years, 22 of them at the middle school, suggested keeping the additional $6,000 for raises for two teachers who will have completed their master’s degree work this summer but didn’t file the paperwork with the superintendent by the November 2022 deadline. Hartford said most teachers in the district were unaware of the requirement.

Even if the money were put back in the budget, it wouldn’t be paid to those teachers because contracts need to be followed, Albert said.

“This body doesn’t direct how the money gets spent,” moderator Clint Boothby stated.

“As much as I would like to see these people be rewarded for their hard work, I was a teacher for 33 years,” board Chairman Robert Staples said. He served as a building representative and would let the people in his building know important dates at the beginning of each school year. If contracts were broken for this, they could be broken for other things, he said.

“It’s a contractual thing,” Staples noted. “You have to be very careful.”

The $94,000 amendment for regular instruction failed, then the $100,000 was approved, as was the adjusted amount of $8.77 million.

After the meeting, Albert said the district usually doesn’t receive the Anthem rates until after the next year’s budget is approved. If that had happened this year, the money not spent would have gone into the fund balance, he added.

Voters in the three towns will go to the polls Tuesday, April 25, to decide whether to approve the final amount. It will be the only question on the ballot.