An influx of new residents in Gorham is driving up the school budget.

Residents will vote Tuesday on a $38.9 million proposal. After school and town officials reduced the original bottom line in recent weeks, the proposal going to voters represents a spending increase of $1.3 million, or 3.5 percent, over the current year.

Gorham added 1,000 new residents from 2010 to 2016, an increase of 6 percent that makes the town one of the fastest-growing in the state. Next year, local schools are expected to grow by 77 students, particularly at the elementary level. That is a nearly 3 percent increase, which will push enrollment over 2,800 total students.

“We’re working closely together with the town council to try to figure out the issues associated with growth in our community,” Superintendent Heather Perry said.

To accommodate the growing number of students, the budget proposal includes two portable classrooms – one for the Village Elementary School and one for Gorham High School. The district would also hire additional employees, including three elementary school teachers, to handle the incoming students.

At the same time, the amount of state aid has decreased by nearly $900,000.

“It is very difficult because we are seeing an increase in our expenditures and a decrease in revenue, and the gap is only filled in one place, and that is the taxpayers,” Perry said.

Perry and the Gorham School Committee spent weeks trimming the budget. The Gorham Town Council cut an additional $346,000 on Tuesday, one week before the referendum vote. Those reductions did not impact teaching jobs, but they eliminated purchases of new buses and technology, as well as some money for staff development and substitute teachers.

The final proposal would increase the school’s portion of the tax rate by 9.2 percent, or $1.02 per $1,000 of assessed property value. That would add $204 to the tax bill for a home assessed at $200,000.

Perry said the district’s per pupil costs are in line with past years and lower than many nearby communities, and officials are already planning a workshop later in June to talk about managing the town’s growth.

Polls in Gorham are open between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Residents of Ward 1-1 vote at Gorham Middle School at 106 Weeks Rd. Residents of Ward 1-2 vote at Little Falls Activity Center at 40 Acorn St. Residents of Ward 2 vote at the Shaw Gym at the Gorham Municipal Center at 75 South St.

 

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