PARIS — Maine Administrative School District 17’s proposed $51.6 million budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year was validated Tuesday during a public hearing.

Oxford Hills residents line up for a ballot vote during Maine School Administrative District 17’s budget validation hearing Tuesday. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat

During the hearing, a separate request to fund its capital improvement account with $2 million from the local share was also approved.

The budget represents a 7.5% increase from the current year. However, adding the extra $2 million capital reserve funding brings total projected spending next year to $53.6.million, which means the total budget will increase by 11.7%.

Voters districtwide will get their opportunity to vote on the school budget during state elections June 11. The referendum question will read: “Do you favor approving the Maine School Administrative No. 17 budget for the upcoming school year that was adopted at the latest District budget meeting?”

In other business, two proposed amendments to Article 19 were discussed Tuesday and voted down before residents approved $2 million as recommended by the school board.

The first amendment was to ask voters to approve the funds as a bond payable over five years, instead of from local share, introduced by Paris’ Town Manager Natalie Andrews, who served as school board chair in 2021 and 2022.

The second amendment was introduced by Paris resident Robert Jewell, who has served several terms on SAD 17’s school board. He made a motion to raise $15 million through a bond for a 10-year term.

Both Andrews’ and Jewell’s motions were heavily debated before the hearing’s moderator John Jenness closed discussions and voters rejected them in favor of raising $2 million as recommended by the school board.

The $2 million is the first piece of a multiyear plan to tackle maintenance and repairs to all eight elementary schools in the district.

After schools were inspected in 2023 by architectural firms LaVallee Brensinger Architects of Portland and Harriman of Auburn, reports detailing each of the buildings’ needs were presented to SAD 17 administration. The reports stated that over the next 10 years, schools for grades prekindergarten through eight will require upkeep totaling $22.4 million.

Estimates for the individual schools, adjusted for projected inflation are as follows: Paris Elementary School, $736,000; Hebron Station School, $1.4 million; Otisfield Community School, $1.5 million; Harrison Elementary School, $3 million; Waterford Memorial School, $3 million; Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway, $4.2 million; Oxford Elementary School, $4.2 million; and Agnes Gray Elementary School, $4.4 million.

Needs for Oxford Hills Middle School and Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School are not being addressed in the coming fiscal year.

OHMS and Agnes Gray are both on Maine Department of Education’s current priority list for replacement. Harriman is overseeing the process for the middle school and LaVallee Brensinger for Agnes Gray; there are community construction committees for each school that co-meet monthly. However, the school construction website indicates no meeting agendas have been posted since February.

Also at Tuesday’s hearing, many balked at the language of Article 20, which would authorize the school board to spend funds from the capital reserve account at its own discretion.

The district is requesting $2 million and it is expected to repeat the request annually over roughly the next decade. There is no available plan detailing priorities and projects, which did not sit well with many in attendance.

Pressed to state where and how the money in the next fiscal year will be spent, SAD 17 Finance Director Carrie Colley responded that servicing HVAC systems in schools could eat into most of the $2 million alone.

The answer did not sit well with residents, especially those from West Paris where conditions at Agnes Gray have become so degraded the school was closed Feb. 6 with its students redistributed through three different facilities.

Eli White, West Paris’ head selectman, pointed out that OHCHS and OHMS are included in the HVAC maintenance list, even though the $2 million is supposed to be allocated to elementary schools only.

Others expressed concern that if the article was approved it would essentially become an open check for the district to spend it on projects other than its intended use. Despite the pushback, when it came time to vote, the article was approved.