LEWISTON — Tasked by the City Council with making further changes to the proposed 2024-25 school budget, School Committee members settled Wednesday evening on proposing cutting over a million dollars.
After a nearly 90-minute meeting in which several members proposed different areas or draw funds from, members settled on cutting just under $1.13 million from the $111.47 million proposal that was rejected by voters earlier this month.
The proposed $111.47 million is 9.29%, or $9.48 million, more than the current fiscal school year’s $101.99 million.
At the beginning of the meeting, Superintendent Jake Langlais proposed cutting $73,650 from the facilities budget and taking $514,151 more from the undesignated fund balance, along with moving $500,000 from the special education reserve account to the fund balance. That, with the $500,000 previously approved cuts at last week’s committee meeting, would have taken just over $1.78 million off the budget.
Langlais also said the state corrected its state subsidy amount and the school department is expecting to get an additional $195,225 – a welcomed surprise, he said.
Ultimately, committee members decided to put $150,000 back in the special education budget, a cut made at the last committee meeting, and not use any additional funds from the undesignated fund balance, instead moving $650,000 from the special education reserve to the fund balance.
Committee member Phoenix McLaughlin suggested the prevailing budget changes.
The proposed cut would put the property tax rate for education at $13.85 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is 49 cents lower than the budget voters rejected. The rate would be $1.68 more than this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
City councilors are meeting Thursday night to consider the committee’s changes and vote on them. If they are approved, the second public vote on the budget will be June 11.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
