Perry

Gorham Superintendent Heather Perry on Wednesday, April 15, delivered a $57.5 million spending plan to Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak. The School Committee passed its proposed budget unanimously, 7-0, on April 9. A Town Council vote is upcoming.

“I feel this amount we’re bringing forward is very reasonable for taxpayers,” School Committee member Mia DeSanctis said at the meeting.

Another School Committee member, Jaci Reynolds, said, “It’s a budget of need. This budget doesn’t have fluff.”

The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is up more than $4 million from the current year’s $53.4 million, representing a 7.6% increase. It would raise the portion of the tax rate to support local education 30 cents per thousand dollars of valuation, from $9.54 to $9.84. Taxes on a home assessed at $400,000 would increase $120, from $3,816 to $3,936.

The budget requires both Town Council approval and by voters in a June validation referendum.

“This proposed budget has the lowest projected mill impact to taxpayers in Gorham since 2015 with just a 3.15% overall increase,” Perry said in an email. “Last year’s increase was over 9% to taxpayers.”

The referendum last year narrowly passed by four votes and citizens demanded a recount and the budget prevailed by a mere two votes.

Some items that drove up this year’s budget, Perry said, include a 14% hike in health insurance costs; a $320,000 increase in paid Maine Family Medical Leave; a $340,00 interest payment on borrowing approved by voters last November for the high school expansion and HVAC upgrade at Narragansett Elementary School; $158,000 for capital improvements; $120,000 for elementary laptop replacements; $136,000 for special education increases; and $300,000 for transportation including contracted driving costs.

One job was lost as a Gorham High School technology teacher position was eliminated, saving $62,000. The cut was part of a three-year plan to shift technology instruction to graphic arts and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math).

School Committee Chair Sarah Perkins said at the April 9 meeting the state subsidy jumps up $2.1 million, from $22.7 to $24.8 million.

No resident addressed the School Committee during the public comment segment.

In a next step, the School Committee will meet with town councilors in a joint workshop to discuss the budget at 6:30 p.m. on April 29 in Conference Room A at the Municipal Center. The meeting is open to the public and will be livestreamed on GoCAT TV.

A second meeting at 6:30 p.m. on May 6 is an option. The Town Council will conduct a public hearing and vote on the school budget at 6:30 p.m. on May 13 and the public validation referendum is set for Election Day, June 10.

School officials are optimistic the budget will pass. “I’m very proud of this budget,” Perkins said.