The general fund budget for Maine School Administrative District 61, which covers Bridgton, Casco and Naples, will be $40 million in the 2026-27 school year, an increase of 3.57% from the previous fiscal year.

The budget was finalized at a public hearing on Tuesday, May 5, at Lake Region High School. The hearing was lightly attended, with all articles passing unanimously without significant debate. The final budget will be voted on by residents of the three towns on Tuesday, May 19, with a validation referendum due to take place at Crooked River Elementary School.

Finance Coordinator Sherrie Proctor said the budget hearing and subsequent referendum were the culmination of a process that began in November, with a district administration meeting with staff about their needs and presenting a budget to the superintendent. From there, separate iterations of the budget were presented to the finance committee, school board, and taxpayers, before the final public hearing was held ahead of the referendum.

The budget item seeing the largest percentage increase is under the category “other instruction,” which covers co-curricular and athletic activities at Lake Region High School and Lake Region Middle School. The item will see an increase of about $85,000, or 9.17%, to a total of $1.02 million.

Meanwhile, the item seeing the largest cut will be debt service, which will decrease by around $732,000, or 39.76%, to a total of $1.1 million, on account of a 16-year qualified construction bond for Lake Region High School being retired.

One notable infrastructure project in the budget is the installation of backup generators at the Educational Services Building, which serves as the district’s bus garage. At the May 5 meeting, Proctor said the only schools in the district with backup generators are Crooked River, Stevens Brook, and Lake Region High School, with generators needed at Lake Region Middle School, Songo Locks School, and the Educational Services Building. The generators provide power to keep the schools open during snowstorms, and, if necessary, allow them to serve as community warming shelters.

Due to the expense of installing three generators at once, the district chose to prioritize the Educational Services Building, where the installation will cost $165,000, to be split between the three district towns. The generator was approved at the public hearing.

New positions include a fourth-grade teaching position at Crooked River Elementary School, a special education healthcare technician, a full-time custodian at Lake Region High School, and an English-language ed tech position at Lake Region High School and middle school.

While budget items are usually voted on separately, this year, large swaths of the budget were voted on as a block after resident Greg Watkins made a motion to lump Articles 1-13, which covered the majority of the budget items, into a single article. The majority of the remaining articles were voted on by hand ballot, and included authorizing the school to expend grants and other receipts, as well as adult education programs and raising $50,000 to keep school buildings open on weekends and vacations.