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Jefferson School Committee forwards FY27 draft budget to town budget committee
Summary
The Jefferson School Committee reviewed revisions to its proposed FY27 budget on March 26 — including special-education cost shifts, an increase in special-ed health insurance, a renamed social-worker line, and a proposal to add $100,000 to a long-term maintenance account — and voted to send the draft to the town budget committee for review.
The Jefferson School Committee on March 26 reviewed revisions to its fiscal year 2027 draft budget and agreed to forward the draft to the town budget committee for consideration, the board said.
Emily, who presented the revisions, told the committee she verified 99 tuition students and had projected a 10% increase in tuition and a corresponding 10% adjustment to the IBF/IVF figures. She said the committee removed one EDTE position but retained an additional $150,000 (three contracted special-education positions at $50,000 each) to cover unfilled needs and contracted services. "We are going to be able to bring back our out-of-district placement students back into this district," Emily said, and that return should generate cost savings for the district.
Emily identified the largest single change as an adjustment to special-education health insurance, which she reported at $90,000. She also said a grant-funded guidance counselor position will end before FY27 and that a line labeled 'social worker' was recoded: the staff member’s role is changing to a school psychologist, not being eliminated.
On transportation and operations, Emily consolidated duplicate bus and purchase-transportation lines after reviewing two years of spending data and reduced bus maintenance and repair by $10,000. She said the district trimmed an instructional online subscription from about $35,000 to $22,000. The contract for the facilities manager was increased from four to five days per week; that position will be shared with a partner the transcript refers to as both "Noble Burrow" and "Noble Boro," with roughly 60% of the package billed back to that partner, Emily said.
On totals, Emily reported in the record a draft budget amount read as "9 million 200,000 $325.75" and stated the draft is down over last year by a figure read as "15,000 $940," or roughly 1.14 percent; committee members asked Emily to print updated revenue pages to clarify the tax impact and exact totals. The committee discussed adding $100,000 to the town-held long-term school maintenance (capital reserve) account to save for future high-cost repairs; one member said the district could do so "without impacting property taxes" this year.
Procedurally, the committee moved to enter executive session earlier in the meeting under 1 MRSA 405(6)(A) to discuss compensation of officials, appointees and employees; the motion passed by voice vote (no roll-call tally is recorded in the transcript). Later the group agreed to send the draft budget (dated in the record 3/26/2026) to the town budget committee for study and to schedule a joint meeting to review the proposal before final adoption. The committee did not adopt the budget at the March 26 meeting.
Next steps: Emily will finalize the updated draft and send the budget and revenue pages to the board and the town budget committee; the board discussed an April joint meeting date and plans to adopt the budget only after the budget committee’s review and any amendments.
