RSU 21 pitches $54.3M school budget: Here is what's proposed and the tax impact

KENNEBUNK, Maine — RSU 21 will hold its annual district budget meeting Monday, May 16, giving voters in all three of its communities opportunities to weigh in on $54.3 million in proposed spending for fiscal year 2023.

The meeting — the budget’s last stop before the validation votes in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel next month — will be held in the gym at Kennebunk Elementary School at 177 Alewive Road at 7 p.m.

The warrant for the budget meeting is available on the school district's website.

Overall, with revenues taken into account, the local tax assessment on this budget would be $44.9 million — $221,798 less than in 2022.

If approved, the estimated impacts of the budget to taxpayers will vary per $100,000 of their property valuations. In Kennebunkport, for example, the rate would be $974 per $100,000 of valuation, a jump of $14 from fiscal year 2022. In Arundel, the rate would be $1,677, a decrease of $13 from the current budget. In Kennebunk, the rate would be $1,452 per $100,000 of valuation, a decrease of $8.

These figures pertain only to the school budget’s impact on taxpayers and do not reflect the impacts of the proposed municipal budgets in the three towns that comprise the district.

Nearly 70%, or $37.4 million, of the budget covers salaries and benefits. Other key budget-drivers include a 35% rise in energy costs, to the tune of $331,800; increased expenses related to the maintenance of facilities; and upward ticks in expenses related to staff development, administrative purchases, and classroom materials.

Also included in the budget is $20,000 to help Kennebunk High School students transform the KHS courtyard into a space for outdoor classrooms, events and social gatherings. Earlier this year, the students presented their plan for the project to the School Board and asked for its support.

'We have a duty': Kennebunk High students aiming to bring school's courtyard to life

Breaking down the proposal further, the budget calls for authorization to spend $20.4 million on regular instruction and $9.3 million on special education. That is an increase of $680,871 over 2022 spending for regular instruction and an increase of $281,568 over 2022 for special education.

Proposed spending for career and technical education also is up — in this case $2,120, or 4.8%.

As well: approximately $4.4 million for student and staff support, up $323,090 from the current budget, and approximately $2.4 for school administration, up $257,196. Proposed financing for facilities maintenance also is up at $6.2 million, which is $673,203 more than the current budget.

New $4.3M athletic complex on the table

The warrant for the budget meeting also asks voters to authorize the School Board to transfer $2.8 million from available fund balances to the School Capital Reserve Fund and to expend close to $3.1 million from that fund for the renovation of the athletic complex at Kennebunk High School.

If voters ultimately approve the budget during annual town meetings in June, then the school district could break ground on the project later that month. RSU 21 School Board Chair Art LeBlanc said the district’s goal is to complete the complex by the spring of 2023.

“We need to approve this project so that we will have a safe athletic facility for our students and our community to use,” LeBlanc told the School Board and the community last month.

More: RSU 21 seeks voter approval for new $4.3M athletic complex at Kennebunk High School

In 2015, the School Board designated $250,000 for a new track because the current one is in such disrepair that athletic events cannot be held on it. Last year, the board also moved $1.25 million in unused construction monies to the project’s fund.

These amounts, taken with the $2.8 million transfer request in the proposed budget, would put the project fund at $4.3 million, the total it is estimated to cost. That final estimation includes contingency funding at 10%.

The district also is raising funds for the project in the community.

“Any money not spent that we designate here will end up in the undesignated, or unallocated, fund balance,” Finance Committee Chair Ira Camp told the School Board during the budget’s second reading.

In addition to a new track, the project also calls for new bleachers, light fixtures, synthetic turf field, fencing and other measures.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: RSU 21 pitches $54.3M school budget: What's in it and tax impact