RSU 22 administrators propose Article 5 budget with safety kits, course additions and changes to federal-funded programs

RSU 22 administrators detailed proposed Article 5 budget changes at a work session, including a 10% increase in nursing supply funding and plans to purchase classroom "Stop the Bleed" kits for about 50 classrooms while preserving current nursing staffing ratios.

The district's director of wellness and safety, Britney Laymon, said the nursing staffing ratios "will not change for the next school year" but noted supplies costs had risen; she said she increased the supply line by 10% and raised the professional-development line to send nurses to a June health institute. Laymon said the district previously supplied Reedsbrook, Smith and Wagner with stop-the-bleed kits through a FEMA grant obtained by the Waldo County School Safety Task Force and now plans to equip more rooms at middle- and high-school levels because "statistically if something tragic was gonna happen, ... it would be at that high school and middle schools." She described the kits as including tourniquets, gauze, bandages, alcohol and gloves.

Jennifer Nickerson, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, said district-level curriculum spending will fall by about $19,000 because major…