The Lisbon School Committee discusses the latest 2020-21 school budget proposal on April 6.
LISBON — Lisbon School Department is proposing a $17.9 million school budget that would raise taxes by nearly 4%.
For a home valued at $200,000 that would mean a tax bill increase of $174 to $4,794, according to Town Manager Diane Barnes.
The proposed budget is a $1.1 million or 7% increase in spending from the current year, which includes the adult education program. The portion of the spending plan funded by local tax payers dropped by about $64,396 from the proposed budget Lisbon School Committee discussed in early March. Superintendent Richard Green said Wednesday he expects the budget will change again in the next month before the Lisbon School Committee is slated to vote on a final budget in early June. The school budget referendum is scheduled for July 14, in conjunction with the state primary election.
Green said there is $300,000 included in the proposed budget to hire additional teaching staff to help address growing enrollment and class sizes at Lisbon Community School. That money is also targeted to hire resiliency, resource and truancy coordinators to help teachers with classroom management and instruction while focusing on the social and emotional needs students bring into the classroom.
“We’re going to definitely need those consultant positions in our budget,” Green said. “We’re going to need them next year more than ever.”
Green said the school department should get federal stimulus funding soon through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, though he didn’t know yet Wednesday how much. Maine is projected to receive $43.7 million in K-12 relief funding, according to the Maine Department of Education, to help schools respond to and address needs created by the coronavirus pandemic. That can range from buying educational technology to providing mental health services, as well as implementing summer learning and after school programs.
Green told the school committee last week that he froze the current school budget and asked administrators to contact him before making any large purchases to make sure the district can cover its nutrition program, which wasn’t initially drawing any revenue when the schools closed in mid-March. The meals provided by the school department will be reimbursed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer food program, but Green didn’t yet know if it will cover all expenses.
“This is like the perfect storm when it comes to revenues and budgets,” he said.
The school committee is scheduled to approve the budget June 1 before it goes to a public hearing June 2.
Green said he doesn’t know if the community will approve the proposed school budget which carries a large increase for Lisbon, a town of about 9,000 according to the 2010 census.
“We have to be aware of the financial situation of our taxpayers,” he said, between now and June. “When this (budget proposal) was created the economy was booming.”
The town council will hold a municipal budget workshop May 5, but won’t vote on it until late June.
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