001We will start. Uh there'll be a lot more information later, but just to get the meeting opened, uh if you could please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. So, our first business of the night is to elect a moderator so this meeting can go smoothly, more smoothly than if I'm the one running it. Um, are there any nominations from the floor for a moderator? There's a nomination for Bill Stockmire. Is there a second? Okay, I see a second. Any other nominations? Okay, seeing none, um, everyone in favor of Bill Stockmire from uh, for moderator, please raise your card. Thank you. Okay, need it. So move Bill Stockmire is the moderator. So, Bill, come on up and we'll swear you in. Uh, Do you, William Stockmmy, swear
002that you will support the Constitution of the United States in 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 the duties incumbent on you as moderator of MSAD6 budget meeting on May 16, 2025, according to the Constitution and the laws of the state of Maine. I do. Thank you. And thank you again everybody for coming out tonight. Before Superintendent Gleason gives an overview of the budget, I just want to lay down a few of the rules of the road. Um, first off, um, the voters, if you're a voter, you should have a blue voting card and you should have a yes no ballot, which I believe is green. Uh, so if you're a voter and you don't
003have those documents, you should go back out and see your clerk and register. Okay. Now, if you're not a voter, could you just identify yourself by raising your hand? Okay. We have some in in back and one in front here. Um, so the way we'll distinguish this is you we'll be voting by raising your cards. Okay? So I'm not going to ask people to move unless there's an objection. Okay? So seeing none, people can stay where they are. We'll be voting by raising the cards. So obviously if someone doesn't have a card, they won't be able to vote and we can be sure that only voters are voting. Second, I've already sworn in the ballot clerks so they can continue to swear check in the voters. Next order of business is to establish the rules
004of procedure. I'll generally follow the rules of the main moderator's manual with applicable provisions of main law with a couple modifications. Uh first, school administrative officials will be allowed will be allowed as called upon to answer questions and explain the budget within their areas of responsibility. Um, in addition, um, Miss Sarah Love, who is not a registered voter, has been asked to, uh, be allowed to address the meeting. She's not certain she would like to, but, she's been asked to be allowed to address the meeting. Now, for a non- voter to address the meeting, that requires a twothirds vote of the meeting. Are there any other non- voters who feel they would like to address the meeting? If so, could you raise your hand? Okay. So, uh, we're going to vote now on whether to
005allow Miss Love to address the meeting. Um, so all in favor of that, please raise your cards. All oppose, please raise your cards. Okay, I don't think that's a two-thirds vote. So, that fails. So, Miss Love, you will not be allowed to address the meeting. Um, there will be no amendments to amendments. Each amendment will be acted upon and then other amendments if any will be allowed. Uh I want to stress that so this is a budget with numbers and if we were to allow amendments to amendments we we would get confused as to what number we were voting upon. This does not prevent you from making your amendment after an amendment has been addressed by the meeting. Whether it's adopted or not adopted, you can then make your amendment. So this rule doesn't prevent
006anyone from making their amendment. It's just to keep the meeting from getting confused. And then finally, by law, we'll have a written ballot on article I believe it's 14. Let me check. Article 14. Any objection to the rules of procedure. Great. At this point, I'm going to recognize Superintendent Klay Gleon, who will provide a budget overview. Thank you. Uh some of the feedback we got from last year is that we should have provided a little more information at this session. So we have been doing that. Um we any of you who caught any of the town um budget presentations, this will be similar, not exactly the same, but somewhat similar. Uh and you can also go back and review those just to see what some of the differences are. Um just a couple of themes
007I want to mention um at the outset. Um academics are a topic that come up and people will say, you know, why should we give our tax dollars uh when kids scores aren't aren't good, right? And I and I hear that and and I don't have a great answer other than to say we're we we acknowledge it and we're working on it. Um, elementary literacy took a huge hit when schools closed in 2020 and it's been a a really hard road to bring kids back to where uh where they were prior to that. Uh, and in previous presentations I've shown a bar graph of one particular grade and it just shows the steady growth uh of of the fifth graders. I think it was last year after they came back um several years of having
008consistent instruction. So, we're we're working to close that down. when kids get 90 minutes or more a day of literacy in all our schools in the elementary level. Um our math scores um also kind of struggle. They they they dip down toward middle school and then they they rebound. Um but one of the things that our middle school teachers have told us is kids were coming in with sort of inconsistent language and not a common experience in math. Um, so something we did is implement a new math program and we're in our second year of implementation and we hope that that is going to bear fruit and start to see some some better results in math with common vocabulary and common experiences in math. Our science scores um it's no surprise that they're they're not
009great in fifth grade because we spend an inordinate amount of time on math and literacy. Um kids just don't get exposed to a lot of science. The teachers are too busy trying to to work on the math and reading. So we're trying to put different things in place to to mitigate that and what you see in the data is that it rebounds in middle school when they have content specific instruction the score the gap closes. Uh but then we were seeing it decline again in high school and as we analyze that um some of the reasons for that is that the the high school schedule previous to this year was a trimester schedule and kids just weren't getting the content they needed for the test. So, we have a year um we have a semester
010schedule now with year-long science classes and that's one of the steps we've taken to try to work on science. Um so, I bring those things up just to show that we're we recognize the academics need work and that we are doing things to work on it. Another thing that uh Don Puller, the business manager, and I have really been intent on is looking at our staffing and enrollment. And these are hard conversations to have, but when you when you look uh at the at the history in the last 10 years, we have about 300 more fewer kids than we did 10 years ago, and our staffing is actually higher than it was 10 years ago. And and I can explain some of that with new programs. Um but it doesn't it isn't something that's totally,
011you know, explicable just for that simple reason. So, we're really trying to look at as we um before we hire any fill any position, is this something that we really need? could we do without it? Our enrollment at the high school um is has dropped below a thousand for the first time in anyone's memory. There are people, some of you have probably went to Bon Eagle High School and I might ask you what was the enrollment when you went there and I bet it's a number greater than a thousand. Um we are not looking at a precipitous dip. It is stabilizing and it's expected to be right about a thousand for the next few years. Um but that's something we're looking at is does our enrollment match our staffing? In in this budget, you can
012see that um we are reducing six instructional positions and then one uh one mechanic trying to be responsible. Even after those reductions, our elementary class sizes are 16.7 districtwide, 20 per average home room at the middle school, and about 15 to 18 in the departmental average at the high school. Um another topic that has come up in the past that I want to just put out there is um previously raised funds. And so the two main sources would be capital reserve accounts and fund balance. So capital reserve accounts are unexpended funds. They can be done intentionally in this district. It's usually money from article 9 designated for facilities that isn't spent largely because people just can't get to it because they're working hard and we have a big district. So that money rolls into a
013capital reserve to be used for facilities initiatives, but it has to be approved by the board once it's gone into that account. So something we're doing this year instead of asking for an additional 670,000 from taxpayers, we're going to use money we already raised out of that capital reserve account. Uh and we are currently doing these things. The board approved it and we are working on security upgrades, alarm panels, intercoms, school entrance, securing some of the school entrances that needed um you know uh repairs um among among other things. So we're not asking for those additional funds. We're we're spending money that's already been raised. And then fund balance is a, you know, it's a very tricky thing and and I'm not sure it's it's widely understood and and I won't say that I'm an
014expert on it, but I can tell you that our fund balance, while it had gotten high over the last few years coming out of COVID. So fund balance is like the district's checking account, cash reserves, um it's a financial buffer or cushion for the school district to absorb unexpected um expenses. And in a district our size, you're supposed to keep about five to nine% um of your budget in a fund balance. And for us, that's that's between three and six million is sort of the minimum that we would want to keep. Um three would be uncomfortably low in my opinion. Um our fund balance has been around 10 million. Um but we are using four and a half million of it in this budget. And some people say you should use more, some people say
015you should use less. It's hard to predict because you don't know what your fund balance is until the end of the year. So, one of the things we're committed to is monitoring that fund balance and looking at next year trying to wean ourselves off fund the continued reliance on fund balance because if you don't have that money to put in every year, it starts to have an impact. You you can't we can't come back every year and use $4.5 million out of the fund balance because eventually it will be gone. So, those are a couple overall u themes I just want to mention. Uh the other thing that you'll hear as we go through each article really quickly is um the drastic health insurance costs that a lot of companies are dealing with. Um some
016worse than what I'm sharing with you tonight, but for the second year in a row, we had a 12% increase in our health insurance costs. 80% of our budget is our people. U that's approximately $1 million each year. So in the last two years, we added $2 million just for health insurance costs. Um we we are looking at there's not a whole lot we can do other than try to shop it out. Um it's a challenging process when you have collective bargaining agreements, but not impossible, but it's something we're gonna we're going to look at doing. Uh so those are some overall um themes as we go through. So now I'm what I'm going to do is go through article by article just a real quick review because one of the things last year again
017people were like what's what is that article? What does it mean? What is other instruction? So we're going to tell you. So, article one, uh, regular instruction includes regular instructional programs, pre-K through 12, um, alternative education, uh, English language learners, and gifted and talented programs. This is approximately one-third of our budget. And you can see the proposed increase is 67. So, it's almost flatfunded. People say, "Bring us a budget that's flatunded." This is the part we have the most control over. And this article is almost flatunded. Um, you can see the drivers are salaries and benefits. Um, I I do want to speak to those real quick. Some people are saying, "Oh, these these salary increases, they're too much." Well, three years ago, we were losing people out the door to neighboring districts. We did
018not pay a competitive wage and we couldn't keep people. Um, we are not having that problem anymore. We are attracting good candidates to all of our uh employee groups and we're able to retain them. So I think it is money well spent by the district because the alternative is to not have anyone to drive your kids, feed your kids or teach your kids. So the drivers here again salary increases of 4.3% in this particular group. Uh there was a reduction of six positions through attrition and the health insurance costs that I mentioned. Uh and then non- labor costs actually reduced by 213,000. Um that's 150,000 out of a contingency fund in this area for unexpected um expenses. And then a technology lease was moved into this no moved to article five. So it it shows
019as reduction but it's it's it's an addition on another article. So that's article one. Article two is um special program. So this is special ed resource room self-contained homebound hospital uh social work health psych speech and OT physical therapy. Um this is a 7.55 increase. Um sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal sal salaries and benefits um 765,000 a 6.5% increase the health insurance again and then non- labor costs of 142,000 largely um adding to the contingency and you might say what's that for? If we have one student that moves in the district that needs an out of district placement that might not even cover it but we have we have an a legal obligation to pay for that student. So, we have to
020be prepared in case that happens. Um, this is a 7.5% increase, which is larger than some of the others, but we also have a larger than average special ed population. The special ed population in the state is 14%. Bon Eagles is 21%. So, it it just goes to stand that we would have a higher cost in this district in special ed. Um, the other thing that we do is we run a program in our district um that other districts don't have. Uh, that if we sent those kids out, they would be costing over 100,000 each, but we're able to run those programs in house with our existing staff, which actually saves the district money, which means it could be a higher increase. I know that's not great, but that's one way we're trying to keep
021costs down. So, article three, article three is career and technical educa. Career and technical education. This is kind of a placeholder. Years ago, these funds were moved um the the process was changed that the uh the money goes directly from the state to the institutions like Westbrook Vok or PATHs. It doesn't pass through the district. So, we have $10,000 in there in the event we were build for some unanticipated um cost. I'm not I don't believe we've spent that in the last 10 years, but we we leave it there as a placeholder. So, no change. Article four is other instruction. And so last year, this was a popular one. What is other instruction? Well, it's everything that's not instruction. It's your co-curriculars, your extracurriculars, curricular activities, summer school, so sports, clubs, activities. Um, I want
022to just say this is a minus 3 point. So, a reduction of almost 4%. Our booster groups in this community support a lot of this cost. And I just want to recognize that there are some districts that bear a lot higher percent of this buying uniforms and things, but our boosters do a lot of fundraising and and offset a lot of these costs. Um, so I I want to recognize that this is actually a reduction. Oh, can I go back real quick, Dina? Sorry. A reduction of 105,000 and that is be uh because Don Per did a lot of work p uh being more precise in budgeting the stipens. In the past, we just kind of had a a not a bucket of money. There was a certain amount of money and the stipens were
023paid and we would sort of estimate it. Don has been a lot more uh precise in those stipens. So, even though there were increases, she was able to reduce the budgeted amount to be to kind of meet actual what what were the actual costs. Um and that's that's what that is. And then the drivers for for increases even though the whole article didn't go up. Um game officials uh transportation costs are two big drivers. um we don't have a lot of control over the price of fuel or over what officials charge us. So that was a driver. Okay. Article five is student and staff support. So this is social work guidance, health, library, curriculum, instructional technology. You can see the salaries and benefits um are a driver here. 6.89% increase on average. The health insurance
024costs, but the non- labor driver was really significant here. And and this is these aren't necessarily new expenses, but they hadn't really been um budgeted for. We would our tech director would have to use -ate funds or grants or things to try to find ways to offset this or not do other projects to pay for some of these things that are really necessary. So again, in in the spirit of being transparent, we're putting them in the budget because they are expenses the district has. So that was a significant driver. And you can see it's firewalls, um a tech lease that was in article I mentioned that in article one. Well, it got moved to article five, software renewals, uh supplies. So that that's a significant um portion of that 10 over 10% increase in this
025area. Article six is system administration. This is just the superintendent. Just kidding. This is the superintendent's office. um all the people who work at central office, the school board and schoolboard activities and the business office, payroll, HR, all of those activities that take place at central office. This is that amount. It's an average of a 4.75% increase largely salaries and benefits. Um let's see, school administration article 7. This is the principles, assistant principles, the school offices. Um all the things related to the running of the schools in the office. 4.23 um average increase. Um 134,000 in health insurance and salary increases and then um a reduction uh in supplies because not these weren't really savings. These supplies were moved to another article where they more properly belonged. Don has done a great job of putting
026things where they belong um so they can be tracked and accounted for again in the interest of transparency. Um article eight transportation buses drivers monitors mechanics um a 1% increase um a reduction of about 31,000 with an average salary increase of 2.18% in health insurance. Um and you might say why is this a lot lower? Well, some of you might remember about two years ago, our bus drivers, we we couldn't hire bus drivers. We were cancelling runs weekly. Um, so we had to do a hu a big correction in pay and this is more of a maintenance increase um to just from u later years of that agreed upon contract. Um so so they got a bigger bump in a previous year. Um we did also cut that mechanic position which wasn't actually a person.
027We've been trying for more than a year to fill it and we just we can't get anyone to take the position and our mechanics that are working for us are doing a great job and we feel that we can uh cover it without continuing to carry that position. And then there's software uh thank you to the state of Maine. They used to pay for a software routing software and no longer will they be doing that. So now we have to bear that cost of 65,000 for for routing software. But I I do think there's a hidden benefit in this that the software that we're planning to purchase is pretty um pretty detailed and I think parents will like it because it there'll be an app and they can actually track in real time where the
028bus is. So no more wondering how if you miss the bus or how far back the bus is or how much longer you're going to have to wait among other things. It really it really does a lot of things for us. Um this is article nine which is facilities and maintenance. And last year I I heard a lot from people saying we're not spending enough on our facilities. They're aging. We've got to do something. Um there's a almost 11% increase in facilities. Some of that is salaries and benefits. Uh including that 12% health insurance increase. The non- labor costs though are really the drivers here. Uh purchase professional services, things like inspections and contracts with um with security companies. Um repairs to buildings, vehicles, and grounds that we can't have our internal staff do. We
029have a lot of talented people that work in maintenance, but there's limits to what they can do. Um, a big factor in this right there in the middle, the EI project, um, energy efficient investments. That is a, um, that is almost like a lease payment of $210,000. The whole project is about over $2 million. I don't know the exact amount over 20 years, but that is to uh upgrade the lighting in the district. And I I've seen some people say, "Oh, it's expensive light bulbs." It's not just lighting, but lighting is significant. Our electric bill in this district is huge when you add up all the power consumption in all the buildings. So, putting in LED lights in all the buildings will be an amazing energy savings. And then the Jack Memorial building is a
030the technology hub. We have all of our wires and routing going through it. And we do not plan to um retire that building anytime soon. And the HVAC system is the boiler's 40 years old. Hback HVAC is failing. So, we need to replace it. Um, because the cost of not replacing and having to move all that technology would probably be more than this, I'm going to say. Uh, there's also supplies for grounds, custodial maintenance, everything, the prices of things are going up. Uh, it's no different here. Um, our electric electricity and propane and oil costs are anticipated an increase. We don't know yet what the savings will be from that that efficiency upgrade. So, we have to show that those increases. uh equipment um a lease on existing vehicles um and then we have um
031a contingency reduction. There were I think there was 375,000 in contingency. Uh we reduced it to 300 and we think that we can we can make that work because there is that capital reserve account I talked about earlier if something really came up serious. Article 10 debt and other commitments. This is a good one, right? We we had a reduction of almost 13% and this is largely a ref finance through the bond bank. Uh so it's a lot of its savings on the interest and the principal is just going down. So it's it's getting less expensive, but that is for the Buckton Center school and I think we're about halfway done uh paying for the Buckton School. Article 11 is all other expenses which you know we we had carried this 18,000. It was largely
032used for one item that we moved into a different article. I think it's in the superintendent's office now. That is actually thought exchange. That's that survey that we use quite often to get people's feedback. Um that should have been more, but we were able to negotiate a better rate with them this year. And we review each year whether we really think we're going to use that or not. And there might come a point where we don't, but um it got moved to a different article, so it didn't get cut, but it's not in this article. So this article is zeroed out. Um I think I will pause. Let's pause there for a minute. Is does any one have a question about anything there? If you could yeah come to the mic. Is it okay if
033my question is pertaining to something you brought up before these slides? Sure. Sure. Okay. All right. Just want to make sure. Um, so you mentioned something about fund balance and before I got here I did a little assessment or assessing of of your fund balance over the last five years. So according to FY24 and I get these numbers from your audit report. Yep. Excuse me. You had a 59,748,764 total budget. You used $3.5 million of fund balance. However, your actual fund balance only drew dropped by $42,000. Meaning of that $3.5 million that you budgeted, you only used $42,578 of it. Right? In FY23, you had a $56,535,000 budget with a fund balance of $2.3 million. However, your fund balance went up $1.368 million, meaning you didn't use any of that $2.3 million budget. So, I
034can keep going on and on down. However, the number that I'm looking at here is over the last five years, your um fund balance has actually grown by three, five, six, seven, about $8 million. Okay. $8 million. And I looked at that state statute that you referenced earlier which talks about the 5% mark over a threeyear period and 9% for FY2425. So, and it talks about your prior year budget. So, 9% of your your total budget from last year would be 5.377 million. Okay? And if you have a $10 million fund balance, that means you should be using pretty close to $5 million in your FY25 budget. Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks. So, I'll just speak to the overall point. That is one of the problems we've had and why people in the community bring
035it up and we we get it. It has not actualized. This year, we used 4.8 million for the current year's budget from fund balance or we we it was more. Yes, you're right. And then um and right now we're anticipating using using about half of that, right? So that's closer but still not as close to your point, Bill. And so I think the other thing we're trying to do is that fund balance goes up because for a couple reasons. The revenues are um hard to predict, but the other thing if you're not precision budgeting, right, then you're going to grow the fund balance more because you've overbudgeted. that I think has happened in the past and I think you're going to find in this budget it's not likely to happen as much. So, so what
036we're committed to is looking at that. We're using four and a half million. There's some talk about whether that's too much. We're comfortable using that. Um using more would make me a little uncomfortable till we see the tea leaves of what next year is going to bring. So, it's something we're keeping an eye on. And I understand your question and your point. Other questions? This won't be your last time. You can you can ask things later, too. Um, okay. School nutrition, which has to be voted on as a separate article. This is breakfast and lunch for all our kids, all our 3,296 kids. Um, so this is an 11.23% increase. And you can see some of that is salary, but largely it is food and supplies. Food is costing more at home for all of
037you, for me, and it's costing more at the school. And that is largely what's driving this. Uh we do get some revenue. We can't show that revenue as an offset. We have to raise the money that we expect to spend. There will be some revenue that comes in through reimbursements from the federal government. We still anticipate those, but we have to we have to raise the money that we think we're going to spend. So that's this 11.23% increase. And let's see, adult ed. So this is all the adult ed stuff, the the enrichment programs, our high school equivalency programs, workforce training. Um this is actually an overall um reduction of 67 largely because of a couple of positions that again we've carried for a couple of years, tried to tried to fill, but the adult
038dead director feels that she can get by without them. Um so we are taking them out of the budget. And then there are some supplies, non- labor um items down there, largely technology. Uh adult ed is not covered under any state um like the MLTI program that the student devices are covered under. So we have to pay for those. And so that's that expense you see there. So all all told um that is actually a slight reduction from the previous year. And do we have one with the total? You can have a slide with the total. What we didn't put up there was the the total. No. Okay. So, our total general fund budget is 65,83,000. Maybe I should read it from the warrant instead of this other paper. Huh. Well, yep. 65,83,11 is the
039general fund uh budget. And then when you add So that's articles 1 through 11. Then when you add in food service and adult ed. Well, I guess those are voted on separately, right? So we don't have that total. Yeah, we do. Uh no, we don't. Sorry. We have you saw those amounts up there, but it it is about 60 just just under 69 million when you add in adult and um food service. And the other thing I'll just add is the impact on the towns is a 3.77% average on taxes. And of course that gets build differently to the different towns based on what the state tells us the town's valuation is. We don't get to decide that. The state tells us what each town pays. And this year I I want to say Buckton's
040around 3%. Standage is just is over four, maybe four and a quarter and Lmington and Hollis and Fry Island. Everybody's sort of in between that three and four. 26 range based on valuation. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Gleason. What I'll do now is review some of the general requirements for a voter to be recognized to speak and then we'll proceed to the articles of the warrant and vote on those. Um, first, please use the microphone. It's very difficult to hear you if you don't. Second, when I recognize you, please state your name and your town first and then address the meeting. Third, your remarks need to be relevant to the article that's on the floor, not general comments about the school or general comments, but the the specific article that's on the floor.
041Um, next, this is actually not a schoolboard meeting. It's not a public hearing with witnesses to be cross-examined. For that reason, questions for information should go through me and I'll pass the questions on to the person who can provide the information. The main point here is that this is a voting session of the general legislative body. The legislative body is you folks. You're the legislators of the district. Um and you're here gathered to vote. And your debate is for the purpose of persuading each other how to vote. Um if necessary, I'll impose a rule that in fairness, no person be allowed to speak a second time on a motion until everyone else has had their first chance to speak. We can also impose rules about how long people can speak for. I almost never need
042to impose this rule. And this goes back to my other basic point, which is that um this is your meeting. Um and moving things along is in your hands because you can make the motion um that we vote now. Just come up. Mr. Moderator, I move that we vote now if you think debate has gone on long enough or I move the previous question. That requires a twothirds vote. So you don't need to worry if you've made it too soon because if twothirds of the people aren't ready to cut off debate, they'll vote against it and continue with debate. If twothirds of the people are ready to cut off debate, then it's fair to the bulk of the people here that we cut off debate and proceed to a vote. So we try to be
043fair to the people that want to keep talking. We try to be fair to the people that wish to cut off debate. But that's your tool to move the meeting along. Okay. We'll take up each article of the warrant in turn. I'll read the article in for in full and I believe we have a board member ready to move each article and second it to get it on the floor and then we'll be open to discussion and any um debate or or amendment. Okay, any questions about how we're going to proceed? So now I'll read the first article and ask someone to move it as written and second article one. So first we'll do the expenditure articles articles 1 through 11. Sir, do you have a question before we proceed? Okay. Article one, shall main
044school administrative district number six be authorized to expend $25,729,268 for regular instruction? Do I have a motion and a second? Well, while Stish, I move the question. Move as written. Move as written. Yep. Okay. Is there a second and second? Article one is on the floor. Any discussion or debate? Always wait a little extra for the first one just in case. Seeing none will vote. All in favor say I and raise your cards. All oppose say nay and raise your cards. Article one carries. Article two. Shall Main School administrative district number six be authorized to expend $12,936,273 for special education? Do I have a motion and a second? Uh, I move the uh I move it as written. Thank you. Is there a second? Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I
045and raise your cards. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. We'll just go with raising the cards from this point forward. Okay. All right. Article three. Shall Main School of Admin administrative district number six be authorized to expend $10,000 for career and technical education? Do I do I have a motion? Uh moved as written and second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article three carries. So articles one through three have all carried. Article four. Shall Main School Administrative District number six be authorized to expend $1,172,679 for other instruction? Is there a motion? Move is written. And a second. Okay. Article 4 is on the floor. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All oppose, raise your cards. Thank you. Four
046carries. Sir, you're welcome to continue to get up, but you can I can also hear you from here. If you'd prefer to remain seated, that's fine. Article five. Shall Main School administrative district number six be authorized to expend 5,974,59 for student and staff support? Is there a motion? Desert and second. Article five is on the floor for discussion. Student and staff support. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article five carries. Article six, shall main school administrative district number six be authorized to expend $1,731,90 for system administration. Second. Okay, it's on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article six carries. Article seven. Shall Maine School Administrative
047District number six be authorized to expend 2,825,797 for school administration. Is there a motion? Second. Article 7 is on the floor. School administration. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All oppose, raise your cards. Thank you. Article seven carries. Article eight. Shall Main School Administrative District number six be authorized to expend 4,94,668 for transportation and buses? Is there a motion? Second. Thank you. Article 8 is on the floor. Any discussion? Transportation and buses. Seeing none will vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article eight carries. Article nine. Shall Main School administrative district number six be authorized to expend 9,82,550 for facilities maintenance? Is there a motion? Second. Article 9 is on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, will vote.
048All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All oppose. Raise your cards. Thank you. Article nine carries. Article 10. Shall Main School Administrative District number six be authorized to expend $1,435,727 for debt service and other commitments? Is there a motion? A second. Thank you, Don. Article 10 is on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none will vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 10 carries. Shall Main School Administrative District number six be authorized to expend $0 for all other expenditures? Is there a motion in a second? Second. Okay, it's $0. So, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Any opposed? Raise your cards. Okay, I thought we'd get agreement on that, but close enough. Okay, that's the expenditure side of the budget. Um this next
049article I'll just briefly explain. This is where you get your state matching dollars. Um the right hand column is called the required local contribution. Those are the tax dollars proposed to be raised. The lefthand column is the state matching dollars plus the local dollars on the right. And the state contribution is the mathematical difference between the left column and the right column. It's not actually shown. This is form is required by state statute. The state subsidy is roughly $22.7 million if you do the math. I explain that just because it would be impossible to understand otherwise. Okay, so I'll read the article. Article 12. Shall Main School administrative district number six raise an appropriate 48,317,114.3 for the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs
050and services funding act? And shall main school administrative district number six raise $25,591,736.666 and assess the amount set forth below 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 title 2a section 15688. Now, the recommended amount of the total allocation on the left is 48,317,114.3. I'm just reading the totals at the bottom. And the total to be raised as the required local contribution from all the towns together is $25,591,7366. Is there a motion and a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion here? Yes, sir. Bill Hall, town of Buckton. So many moons ago when I paid a lot more attention to the state and school, um the state always promised to
051pay 55% of education. Where are we right now with the state uh towards uh bond eagle? Um wow, it's a little louder. So the 55% is kind of a tricky number because and I'm not trying to be rude towards the state. I appreciate everything they do, but that 55% is the total money that's put in to the pool that goes out to all the schools. And so they the state would say they are meeting their obligation that they're meeting 55%. Um our percent from the state is not 55%. It's what is that? It's it's less than 50. I'm trying to do some mental math here. 40 whatever six. It has been lower than that in previous years. So that's a little bit higher than it was I think last year um from memory. Um so
052they're saying they're doing 55% but there is a whole um effort right now to revamp the school funding formula because there's a lot of districts that feel like it's not working. Um property values in communities that are not wealthy are showing that they have money when they don't have money. And I think that's starting to happen to some of our communities. the valuations are going up uh and people are struggling to pay their taxes and it's and their income doesn't match what what the valuation is, right? I think that's a problem across the state which is why this is starting to become an issue. So, I'm not sure how much of an answer that is, but um that's what I can give you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor,
053raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 12 carries. Article 13. Now, this also raises tax dollars for previously approved school construction debt service payments. Shia Main School Administrative District number six raised an appropriate $78,729 for the annual payments on debt service previously approved by the district voters for non-state funded school construction projects or non-state funded portions of school construction projects in addition to the funds appropriated as the local share of the district's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre kindergarten to grade 12. Is there a motion and a second? Second. Article 13 is on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 13 carries. And article 14 is
054the last article to raise revenues for the school budget. Um, and it requires a written ballot, which I'll uh explain how to vote when we get there. Um, I'd ask the clerks to maybe bring the ballot boxes into the room at this time while we're reading the article. Um, Sha Main School Administrative District number six raised an appropriate 11,121,2986 cents in additional local funds, which exceeds the state's essential programs and services allocation model by 12,553,374.73 as required to fund the budget recommended by the board of directors. School board recommends 11,121,29986 for additional local funds and gives the following reasons for exceeding the state's essential program and service allocation model by 12,553,374.73 and the reasons are set forth in italics there. Is there a motion on article 14? Is there a second? Any discussion? Yes, sir.
055Bill Hall, Tanner of Buxton. Is this um written incorrectly? I'm sorry. Is this Warren article written incorrectly? Because it's asking to raise appropriate 11 million more, but it's 12 million more than the EPS model. Does that mean your EPS model is a negative number? Um, when this was drafted, was there an explanation from Yeah. for the difference between the two numbers? Um, when I wrote it and and um submitted it to your firm, they changed that second number on me because usually the the numbers bigger than the EPS models. That doesn't make a lot of sense to be honest with you. Yeah. I mean, I know we're voting on the 11 million. For a number of years, the two numbers have been the same. Actually, years ago, the second number used to be smaller because
056the state wasn't fully funding its share. Correct. And that's why it's sort of written in this odd way. The statute didn't change. For the past 10 years, the two numbers have been the same. I'm not sure why the second number is larger and it it may have something to do with how um you're raising your nutrition money afterwards. And I'd have to talk to the lawyers in my firm who drafted the article, but I wasn't involved in the drafting of it, so I don't have an answer for you here and now. But it will raise the 11 million 121. I'll I'll get the answer, Bill, and send you the response. But it's a very good question because it is unusual. That's why I sort of paused as I read it. I was like, I haven't
057seen that before. I don't think it will affect the legality of the um 11.1. If anything, the idea is to is to warn you that you're exceeding the funding model. And if if anything, it overstates the amount, not understates. So perhaps the warning is more dire than it actually needs to be. So I don't think it would affect the legality of anything, but we'll get an answer because it's a very fair question. Okay. Seeing no further discussion, we'll move to a vote. All in Oh, we can't do it by um Well, so written ballot, you would um you have yes and no boxes to check. Is that correct? On the on the ballots. Okay. So check the yes or no box as the case may be. Now could I ask maybe one of the ballots
058boxes to they're all like tightly together there which will take So maybe one of the ballot boxes could come up here. How many do you have? Three or two? All right. Maybe one of the ballot boxes can go on front back over the other side of the stage and one in back. So one on the back table, one on this side of the stage and one on that side of the stage. And then I'll let you guys figure this. Oh, the most important thing. The most important thing before you vote, everybody, you are allowed to fold your ballots. If you don't, the counting will go twice as fast. Okay? If you don't fold your ballot. So, leave it up to you. Has everyone has anyone not had a chance to vote? If you've not voted
059yet, please raise your hand and wave it around. Okay. I'd ask the clerks to We're closing the voting. If the clerks would count the ballots at this point, maybe could they could all do that together at the back table. This is Cleo's response. Yeah, I mean she's just saying that it is I'll have to That's Okay. The result of the if we call the meeting back to order. The result of the vote on article 14 is 53 yes, six no. So, article 14 carries. Article 15 is the summary of the school budget. Shall Main School Administrative District number six authorize the board of school directors to expend $65,83,11 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 from the district's contribution to the total cost of funding public education from pre
060kindergarten to grade 12 as described in the essential programs and services funding act. Local funds for non-state funded school construction projects. Additional local funds for school purposes under the main revised statutes title 20 of section 15690. Unexpended balances, tuition receipts, state subsidy, and other receipts for the support of schools. Is there a motion? Article 15's on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 15 carries. Okay. Now, we have a few additional financial articles, including the school nutrition program and the adult education program that we'll get to in a minute that Superintendent Gleason mentioned. But first, article 16. In addition to amounts approved in the preceding articles, shall main school administrative district number six be authorized to expend such
061other sums as may be 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. Is there a motion and a second? It's on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All oppose, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 16 carries. Article 17. Shall Main School administrative district number six vote to authorize the board of directors to transfer an amount equivalent to the unexpended balance in article 9 at the end of this and each fiscal year thereafter to the capital reserve fund established pursuant to the main revised statutes title 2A section 1491 and to authorize the board of
062directors upon a twothirds majority vote to expend from the capital reserve fund as needed in the discretion of the board of directors. motion and a second. Any discussion? Yes, sir. Bill Hall, town of Buckston. Um, so is there not currently a capital reserve fund for this purpose? There is currently a capital reserve fund for that. It it says here it was established on May 28th, 2015. Oh, up top. Sorry, I didn't see that. So, and was it worded the same way that it is now that the board of uh directors would have the approval to be able to approve that expenditure? Because in most cases, reserve accounts have to go beuh before a town vote to be able to use. Right. When when this article was created, it was created so that the board has
063the authority to make that with a twothirds vote. Okay. And then my next, so this is here's my opinion. Okay, I'm going to try to sway some voters on this one. Um, you know, capital reserve funds are a great sense or a great utility for towns or schools. I'm a huge opponent for capital reserves. However, what I'm not not a not a not a um agreeing to is how you will take the article 9 leftover money and transfer it to it. It's usually cleaner when you just have an appropriation to transfer to capital reserve accounts. So I would not back this because I don't feel that if you have leftover money in an article, it should go to a reserve account. It should go to your unfunded sun fund balance and you should have a
064separate place in one of your articles to approve money to transfer to your capital reserve. Thank you. Any further discussion? Okay, seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor of article 17, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 17 carries. Article 18. Shall Main School Administrative District number six vote to authorize the board of directors to transfer at the end of this fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter all revenues received from the sale of surplus computer equipment, any additional incidental or miscellaneous receipts and the unexpended balance in budget function 2230 instructional technology into the technology capital reserve fund established pursuant to the main revised statutes title 20A section 1491 and to authorize the board of directors upon a two-thirds majority majority vote to expend from the
065capital reserve fund as needed in the discretion of the board of directors. Is there a motion in a second? Article 18 is on the floor for discussion. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 18 carries. Okay, article 19 is the school nutrition program, which is a separate program from the school operating budget that we're finished with at this point. Shiao main school administrative district number six raise an appropriate $236,11 for the school nutrition program with authorization to expend any additional incidental or miscellaneous receipts in the interest and for the well-being of the school nutrition program. Is there a motion and a second? Article 19 is on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards.
066Thank you. All oppose, raise your cards. Thank you. Article 19 carries. Likewise, the adult education program is separate and apart from the school operating budget. Well, I'll read the article. Shia Main School Administrative District number six. This is article 20, excuse me. Shia main school administrative district number six. Appropriate $389,324 for adult education and raise $188,418 as the local share with authorization to expand any additional incidental or miscellaneous receipts in the interest and for the well-being of the adult education program. Is there a motion and a second? Okay. Any discussion on article 20? Seeing none, we'll vote. All in favor, raise your cards. Thank you. All opposed, raise your cards. Thank you. Now, um is the referendum vote on the is it June 10th? June 10th. So, I wanted to mention um as I think
067you know, the second vote on whether you do or don't favor what this meeting just did is in the voting booths in in your town. And there's also an absentee ballot voting period prior to that. And so, you'll have that opportunity to vote. Additionally, every three years you vote on whether to continue that what's called that budget validation process, that second vote, and this is the third year. So, there'll be a second question on that ballot. Do you wish to continue that validation process? Yes or no? And you've done that every three years and this is the third year. Just want to mention that. So, um with that, that concludes the business of this meeting. Yes, sir. Absolutely. So the uh budget validation if that fails what does that mean? If it fails it means
068you'll have this budget meeting and no referendum on this to validate it on following this meeting. So I guess here's my question. You know, I've been doing this a long time as you have and years and years ago, you used to have to vote on separate articles at the on the ballot instead of just one. So, by by voting no on that validation, it doesn't bring us back to there. No, it doesn't. Okay. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Yeah. That I think that process is no longer in the statute as far as I'm aware. So, okay. So, is there a motion to adjurnn? Anybody? Okay. I'll take that by acclamation. Thank you so much for showing up. Thank you to the clerks for helping us tonight. We really appreciate it. And thank you all.