001All right, I don't Good evening. We're going to get started. My goal is to get you out of here to still be able to enjoy some of the sunshine. You can all help me in this. All right. Welcome to the RSU5 board of directors annual budget meeting. It is Wednesday, May 14th, 2025. We are here in the Durham Community Stud Auditorium. Uh we have a full board with the exception of Danielle. She's on her way. She'll join us uh as quick as she can, but we will get started in the meantime. And we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. United States of America. It's a different mic. Okay. Good evening. Welcome to the RSU5 annual budget meeting for the 2026 board adopted budget. The RSU5 board of directors has worked diligently to develop a budget
002that is focused on the goals of the district and the needs of our students while remaining responsive to the needs of our taxpayers. The board of directors proposed operating budget for FY26 is 44,455,929 which is an overall increase of 6.83%. The requested budget includes negotiated salary and benefit increases which equates to 82.5% of the overall budget. The passage of the budget by the voters is a critical to continuous improvement in our district. Financial resources were reallocated or reduced to lessen the tax impact while still strengthening the educational services for our students. The board used $1,68,000 of the undesated fund balance to reduce the tap tax implications of the budget. In addition, a projected $259,000 in interest income was used to further reduce the impact to taxpayers. The estimated tax impact on the three towns is
0038.83% in Durham, 4.95% in Freeport, and 7.87% 87% in Pano. The district's first budget priority is to maintain highquality programming for all students. To be responsive to decreased student enrollment, reductions in personnel include four educators, five educational technicians, and the removal of the funding for the district's mechanic. Despite these reductions, we will continue to deliver on our mission and our vision. Maintaining supports for students is the second budgetary priority. In order to meet the needs of students in the upcoming school year, we are requesting a grade four teacher at the Mass Landing School, a response to intervention behavior educational technician for the Durham Community School and additional days for the guidance counselor secretary at Freeport High School. In addition, we are requesting funding for summer programming at the Durham Community School, Pano Elementary School, and
004Freeport High School, which were previously funded through COVID funding, which is no longer available. Our third priority is to support the district infrastructure to provide a safe learning environment. We request continued funding of the district's capital improvement plan and investments in the Freeport High School tennis and Freeport High School track and field and capital reserve accounts. Further, we are planning for the continued method method methodical sorry methodical replacement of our fleet including ban buses, vans and field ground equipment. In addition, we are requesting significant security and life safety upgrades in all of our schools by utilizing funds in the local budget and the capital reserve account. In addition, we are proposing continuing to fund law non-lapsing article reserves, which will allow us to maintain a contingency outside of local taxation that will allow our district
005to react to facility and/or enrollment driven needs throughout the fiscal year. We will be utilizing undesated fund balance to in order to lessen the burden to the taxpayer while at the same time slowly reducing our undesated fund balances to acceptable levels. These reserves uh reserve accounts include article one regular instruction, article two special education, article five student and staff support and article 8 transportation. The board of directors is appreciative of the continued support for our that our schools receive from the residents of the district. We believe this budget will allow us to continue to focus on building student centered learning environments that support student growth and promote post-secary planning and aspirations. All aimed at improving the overall achievement and success of all of our students. This evening, we are asking for your support for the
006budget presented before you. I will now ask Superintendent Scarappa to call for nominations of the moderator to begin the annual budget meeting. Thank you. Our first action is let's see our first action is to open nominations for the election of moderator. I nominate Gregory M. Second. Are there any nominations from the floor? I close nominations. All in favor of Gregory M to serve as moderator of this meeting, please say I. All oppose, please say nay. Gregory M is elected moderator. I'll now ask the moderator to come forward. Please raise your right hand. Do you, Gregory M, swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Maine, so long as you shall continue to be a citizen thereof, and that you will faithfully discharge to the best of your abilities
007the duties incumbent on you as moderator of the regional school unit number five budget meeting on May 14th, 2025, according to the Constitution and laws of the state of Maine. I do Hello everyone. Um, thanks for having me and um, it's nice to see everybody again. Uh my first order of business as moderator is to swear in the ballot clerks and I'm going to represent to the meeting that shortly before the meeting I met with the ballot clerks outside and they took an oath very similar to the one that I just took and signed a statement very similar to the one I just signed. Um and that was just as a matter of efficiency. Um if someone objects to that and would like me to swear them in again, I'm I'm happy to do it
008again. But if there's no objection, we'll just consider them sworn in. Okay, I'll counter sign their oaths and give them to the superintendent for her records. Okay, let's see. The next order is to set the procedures for the meeting. I'm going to be guided by the main moderator's manual, which is, you know, the procedures that are used pretty universally throughout the state of Maine for town meetings and school budget meetings. Is there any objection to using the main moderator's manual as a guide for tonight? Okay, seeing none, we'll do that. Uh, by law, a person who's not registered to vote in the RSU is not permitted to address or speak uh to the meeting without consent of twothirds of the voters present in voting. Um, however, we do have some administrators and staff who um
009may be needed to provide information or answer questions related to the budget and our business tonight. um including Will Pittin, Julie Nickerson, Gel Jen Gulko, Holly Johnson, Scott Emory, Erica Malali, Cynthia Alexander, Bill Ridge, Eric Hall, Glenn Reynolds, Amanda Marsden, Kate Hillman Harrison, Sam Riby, and Alicia Morrison. So, is there any objection to allowing those people to speak just to provide information and answer questions? if they wanted to speak for or against a motion, that's not what we're asking for right now, and we'd cover that. We'd take that up as it came up. Any objection to allowing those folks to address the uh the meeting? Okay, we'll allow that. Um so, just big picture, um this is uh it's actually not a schoolboard meeting. It's a meeting of the legislative body of the RSU, which
010is the voters who show up. Um and your our goal tonight is to adopt a budget school budget for next year that will be submitted to a referendum vote on June 10th. Um and so um the agenda for the BIS for the tonight is the warrant articles. Um and briefly, this is how we're going to proceed. I'll go through the articles. I'll read the article. I'll then look for a motion and a second. Once I have those, I'll open the floor up for discussions, questions. Um, keep your comments, Germaine, to the topic that we're on. Um, and you know, we'll we'll try to well, I'll I'll kind of reserve any other procedural stuff until until you guys get unruly. Um, but I will arm you with one one thing. Um, sometimes sometimes uh discussion debate
011goes on for a while. and it goes on for a while and you think, "Wow, this is going on too much." I don't have authority to stop discussion. Um, but you do. You can make a motion. The motion is I call the question, I move the question. You can, there are no magic words. You can just say, "Can we stop this and vote?" Um, and it's an extraordinary motion. So, it requires a two-thirds vote. Okay? Um, well, requires a second and a two-thirds vote, but just uh keep that in your back pocket if it can becomes necessary or or useful. Um, let's see. Uh, let's just Oh, just as an overview on the on the warrant, articles 1 through 11 are the expenditures that we'll approve for next year. Articles 12 through 14 raise revenues
012to support the budget. Article 15 is a summary of the total budget. And then all the other articles that follow are are actually not the annual school budget, but they are things that the legislative body has authority to decide. So, while you're assembled, we take care of those things. All right. One last thing. Um, when you check in, uh, you with your clerk, you should have gotten one of these green cards. This is how we're going to do most of our voting by show of cards. I'm not a voter. Um, and then one of the ballots, one of the articles requires a written ballot. And when we get to that point, well, we'll go over the procedures, but I think you're going to go up to visit with your clerk and they'll punch your card,
013give you a yes, no ballot, and we'll do the voting that way. Okay. So, without further ado, let's just launch into this. Um, article one, to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for regular instruction, the school board recommends $19,356,261. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Okay. Article one's been moved and seconded. So I'm going to open up the floor for discussion. Oh, I think uh we're probably are we broadcasting or simal casting and we're recording. So if you were going to speak uh please step up and use the microphone, state your name in the town you're from. Good evening. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Better. My name is Ashley Schumacher. I live in Freeport. Thank you to the board members, administrators, educators, and community members who worked
014on this hard-fought fiscal year 26 budget that we're here to vote on tonight. This year's budget process has faced the perfect storm. The current federal executive branch of government has promised to and actually begun to dismantle our nation's Department of Education. State subsidies already meager will decrease due to revaluation of property in our towns. RSU5 educators negotiated fair wage and benefit increases with the district so that they may continue to match the rapidly increasing cost of living within a commutable distance of our schools. In the face of that financial strain and uncertainty, I believe strongly that our community has a unique opportunity to choose our values and live them, even and especially when things are hard. I believe that schools are vital centers of community support and often the only consistent community touch point for
015some of our most vulnerable citizens. I believe that the people who educate our children are providing immeasurable service to the community and that when they secure a new contract with the district, they should be able to do so with the reasonable expectation that neither they nor their colleagues will be laid off in following budget cycles. I believe that proposed cuts to educator positions are never motivated by the mission of service to the students. I also believe that I'm not alone in these convictions and that our community deserves the opportunity to vote for a budget that does not eliminate any staffed positions and does not staff any classrooms at the threshold action level per district policy III class size. For these reasons, and I would appreciate any guidance if I'm misspeaking here, I would like to
016make a motion on article one to restore the 0.5 FTE ELA teacher position at uh Freeport High School for $51,000. The 1.0 FTEE grade five teaching position at Durham Community School for $102,000. And these are wages and benefits. And the 1.0 O FTE edtech position at Mass Landing School for $48,000 for a total of $2,01 added to article one. 2001 or 2011 $21,000. Sorry. Thank you for your time, consideration, and commitment to our community. So, um, let me just, so this is I'll take as a motion to amend the, uh, article one to increase it by $21,000 to, let's see, $19,557,261. um that and uh before we go on I just want to and and you stated a purpose or intended purpose for that and I just want to let the meeting know that you
017have the ability to change the dollar amounts on the budget but um any all the decisions about spending are with the board and so um you can suggest something but it's not binding on the board so don't just don't have that expectation. So there's a motion to amend article one to increase it by $21,000. Is there a second to that motion to amend? Okay, there's a second. Okay, so now we're on the motion to amend and we're going to discuss whether we want to amend the motion. So, um, does anybody want want to speak for against amending the motion? Okay, by this Yeah. Okay. Any discussion on that? Okay. Seeing none, we're going to vote and we're voting on whether We're not voting on the article. We're voting on whether to change the article to
018increase it by $21,000. So, all those in favor of the motion to amend. Sure. Cards. Thank you. Opposed. Okay. I'm going to say uh article the motion to amend fails. Um and so we're back to the original motion. So, any more discussion on the original motion for article one and the amount recommended? Yes, sir. Peter and Sutnik from Freeport. Um, just a basic question. Do you know how many people are here that are impacting our vote? And second of all, are these people, how many of them have vested interest that they work either for the school committee or they work for the school district? uh that would be very helpful because in the last seven years I have come up here and argued the point about their budget. There's no control over the budget but
019it just gets passed. So I just would like to know how many people here actually have a vested interest other than taxpayers. Thank you. Yeah, I I don't I mean I think we we can check with the clerks out front to find out a number of how many voters are here, but I don't know if it's possible to the question was how many people here um how many people are here to vote and I think more specifically how many people here have a a vested interest in the school budget. Is that a fair summary? Yeah. And so my response was that the clerks can tell us how many voters are here. Um, but I don't know if it's possible to ascertain who has an interest or what that interest is. So, is there any other
020discussion? I was just going to say that I think everyone here has a vested interest in the the schools. Um, and if you know if we have community members that also live in the communities where they work, they are welcome to come here and vote as well. They are they are taxpayers and and community members. Um, so I don't think we know how many people have joined us that um that actually work for the schools, but I I would say that everyone has a vested interest in the value of the schools, but that's probably not the answer you're looking for. So, I'll just repeat the question. The question was, how many people in the room uh work for the RSU and and get are paid through the budget? Is that what you're asking? Yeah. Okay.
021And there may not be an answer. So, um if anybody wants to tender an answer, they can. If anyone wants to make more discussion on article one, the mic's open. Okay, I'll give this an extra beat. Okay, seeing no discussion, we're going to vote on article one in the original amount recommended 19,356,261. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article one passes in the amount recommended. Article two, to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for special education. The school board recommends $6,513,451. So moved. Second. Thank you. So motion and second. Uh any discussion on article two? Okay, seeing none. All those in favor of article two and the amount recommended. Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Article two passes in the amount recommended. Um, article three, to see
022what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for career and technical education, the school board recommends $37,645. So moved. Second. Okay. Is there any discussion on article three? Okay. All those in favor of article three? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Article three passes in the amount recommended. Article four to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for other instruction. The school board recommends $1,119,87. So moved. Second. Okay. Is there any discussion or comment on article four? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Article four passes in the amount recommended. Article five, to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for student and staff support, the school board recommends 4,644,37. So moved. Second. Okay. So any discussion, questions, comments on
023article 5? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Article five passes in the amount recommended. Article six to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for system administration. The school board recommends 1,263,587. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article six? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article six passes in the amount recommended. Article seven, to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for school administration, the school board recommends $2,514,485. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion on article 7? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article seven passes in the amount recommended. Article eight. To see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for transportation and buses, the school board recommends 1,931,576.
024So moved. Second. Anyone want to say anything about article 8? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 8 passes in the amount recommended. Article nine to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for facilities maintenance. The school board recommends 5,490,511. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 9? All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 9 passes in the amount recommended. Article 10 to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to expend for debt service and other commitments. The school board recommends 1 million87,428. So moved. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Artic article 10. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 10 passes in the amount recommended. Article 11 to see what sum the regional school unit will be authorized to
025expend for all other expenditures. The school board recommends $139,591. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 11? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article 11 passes in the amount recommended. So those were all the expenditure articles and now we're moving on to articles that raise funds to support the budget. Article 12 to see what sum the regional school unit will appropriate for the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act and to see what sum the regional school unit will raise and assess as each municipality's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act in accordance with the main revised statutes
026title 2a a section 15688 and the the numbers are presented in two columns. The column on the left is the appropriation. It's it's what the state um feels through the essential programs and services funding model is uh adequate to provide a basic education in the RSU. And that total is 26,843,94146. on the right hand side is um the amount that the RSU must raise in order to be eligible to receive the state subsidy and it's broken up per town's contribution. The total uh to be raised in the RSU is 1998,378.34 in italics is a statutory explanation that I'm I'm not going to read, but if someone would like me to read it, I'm happy to. Okay. Is there a motion for article 12? So moved. Second. Okay. Any discussion on article 12? Yes. Question. Um
027could you just explain what it would mean to vote uh against this article? I think I think if you vote no to this art or if you decrease the amount that you're going to raise in this article, then you it could affect the amount of state subsidy that the RSU receives. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion on article 12? Okay, all those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Uh, article 12 passes in the amounts recommended. Article 13 to see what sum the regional school unit will raise and appropriate for annual payments on debt service previously approved by the regional school unit voters for non-state funded school construction projects or non-state funded portions of school construction projects. In addition to funds appropriated as the local share of the regional school unit's contribution to the
028total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12, the school board recommends 118,98.77. Again, there's a statutory explanation that I won't read, but I will if somebody would like me to. Is there a motion for article 13? So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 13? Okay. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 13 passes in the amount recommended. Article 14. Now, this is the article that's required to be done voted by written ballot. Um, but let's get through the article and the motions first to see what sum the regional school unit will be off will raise and appropriate in additional local funds. recommend 15,45,513.13 which exceeds the state's essential programs and services allocation model by a recommended 15,617,478.13 as required to fund the budget recommended by the school board.
029The school board recommends 15,45,513.13 uh which exceeds the state essential programs and services by 15,617,478.13 and gives the following reasons for exceeding the state's essential programs and services funding model. The state's essential programs and services funding model funding formula is a minimum model to support education in grades preK through 12. RSU number five provides provides additional funds to support lower student student teacher ratios and additional co-curricular activities in addition to complete educational programs for all our students. And again, um there's a statutory explanation that I'm happy to read if someone would like me to. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Is there discussion on article 14? Okay, seeing none, we're going to move on to voting and the clerks will correct me if I'm wrong, but we have a ballot box over there. Can
030Can someone And it's empty. Um, and I believe they're going to come see you with their card that you're going to punch and give them a ballot. And yeah, so that's the precedure. We're going to kind of be in recess while everyone votes. Hey, Kelly. Okay. Uh, last call for votes. Last call for voting on article 14. Okay. I'm going to close the polls and ask the ballot clerks to count the ballots. Thank you. Much Hey, you want to go? We all a sudden started hitting. Okay. So, we'll come back to order. And the results of the ballot vote are 84 yes and seven no. So, article 14 passes in the amount recommended. Okay. Article 15 to see what sum the regional school unit will authorize the school board to expend for the fiscal year
031beginning July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 from the regional school unit's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act from local funds for non-state funded school construction debt service. Additional local funds for school purposes under the main revised statutes, title 28, section 15690, unexpended balances, tuition receipts, state subsidy, and other receipts for the support of schools. School board recommends 44,367,929. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion on article 15? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. So, article 15 passes in the amount recommended. So, that is the operating budget for next year. That will be voted on on June 10th. And now we're going to move on to these other articles. Uh, article 16
032to see if the regional school unit will appropriate $133,000 for adult education and raise $88,000 as the local share with authorization to expend any additional incidental or miscellaneous receipts in the interest and for the well-being of the adult education program. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 16? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Okay. Article 16 passes as written. Article 17, shall the school board be authorized to transfer $295,800 from available fund balances to the regular instruction reserve fund and expend from the regular instruction reserve fund as needed in the discretion of the school board. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion on article 17? Okay. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 17 passes as written. Article 18. Shall the school board be authorized to transfer $618,517 from available
033fund balances to the special education reserve fund and expend from the special education reserve fund as needed in the discretion of the school board. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 18? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article 18 passes as written. Article 19. Shall the school board be authorized to expend from the student and staff support reserve funds as needed in the discretion of the school board? So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 19? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Article 19 passes as written. Article 20, shall the school board be authorized to expend from the transportation reserve funds as needed in the discretion of the school board? So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 20? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Thank you.
034Article 20 passes as written. Article 21. Shall the school board be authorized to transfer up to1,520,59 from available fund balances to the capital reserve fund and to expend up to $2,495,234 from the capital reserve funds as needed in the discretion of the school board. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion on article 21? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. opposed. Thank you. Article 21 passes as written. Article 22. Shall the school board be authorized to transfer up to $35,000 from available fund balances to the track and field capital reserve fund and to expend said reserve funds upon express authorization of the RSU voters or as permitted by law. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 22? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 22 passes as written. Article 23. Shall the
035school board be authorized to transfer up to $40,000 from available fund balances to the tennis court capital reserve fund and to expend said re reserve funds upon express authorization of the RSU voters or as permitted by law. So moved. Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion on article 23? Okay. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 23 passes as written. Article 24. Shall the regional career and technical education operating budget as approved by the cooperative board for the year beginning July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 be approved in the amount of 4,312,957. So moved. Second. Any discussion on 24? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article 24 passes as written. Article 25. Shall Main Region 10 Technical High School region 10 authorize the cooperative board to transfer
036up to $280,000 from undesated fund balances to the region 10 capital reserve fund. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 25? Okay. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article 25 passes as written. Article 26. Shall Main Region 10 Technical High School region 10 delegate authority to the cooperative board to expend additional balances accumulated in the region 10 capital reserve fund from time to time on such specific items or types of capital improvements or equipment as the cooperative board determines to be needed by region 10. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 26? Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Thank you. Article 26 passes as written. Article 27. In addition to amounts approved in the preceding articles, shall the school board be authorized to expend such other sums as may
037be received from federal or state grants or programs or other sources during the fiscal year for school and other program purposes. provided that such grants, programs or other sources do not require the expenditure of other funds not previously appropriated. So moved. Second. Any discussion on article 27? Yes. Just a question. Um, this one, this is whether or not we agree to accept money from sources outside of our district at no additional cost to our uh taxpayers. Is that correct? Yeah, I think it well the school would be authorized to agree. The school would be authorized to do that. Otherwise, we would not be authorized to take money from those outside sources. Um there there arguably you could but this removes doubt. Gotcha. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on article 27? Okay. All those
038in favor? Thank you. Opposed? Okay. Article 27 passes as written. Article 28. Shall the school board be authorized to transfer amounts exceeding 5% of the total appropriation for any cost center to another cost center or among other cost centers for the 2025 2026 fiscal year provided that such transfers that transfers shall not be permitted to increase the total authorized school budget. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion on article 28? Okay. Okay. All those in favor? Thank you. Opposed. Okay. Article 28 passes as written. So, that's that's the end of our business for tonight. Um, I'd like to take an opportunity to thank everyone for coming out and participating. Um, I also want to thank the ballot clerks for doing a very good job and helping us out. Um, and Cynthia, do you have everything
039you need for minutes? Okay. and I will entertain. Oh, I just remind everyone that the school budget that was approved tonight is subject to a yes no vote on June 11th at your local polling places. So, I'd entertain June 10th. June 10th. What did I say? June 10th. June 10th. Um, I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? Thank you. Anybody opposed? All right. The sun is still out.