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RSU 23 presents FY27 budget proposal with $18.4 million in expenditures; town impact projected
Summary
RSU 23 administrators presented a proposed FY27 expenditure budget of $18,400,000, a $889,887 (about 5.8%) increase driven by contractual salary/benefits, a 10% health-premium assumption and special-education staffing shifts; preliminary revenue projections show a roughly 5.3% increase to Old Orchard Beach’s school portion.
RSU 23 administrators told the school board at a budget workshop that the district’s proposed FY27 expenditures total $18,400,000, an increase of $889,887 (about 5.8%) over the prior year. The superintendent said preliminary revenue projections plus adult-education contributions indicate an overall town-school budget increase of about 5.3, or roughly $825,000, to Old Orchard Beach’s school portion.
The district attributed most of the expenditure increase to contractual salary and benefit obligations, including step movement and cost-of-living adjustments; an anticipated 10% rise in health-care premiums applied districtwide; and strategic shifts in how some positions are funded. Administrators said two existing positions (1.5 FTE ELL teacher and 1.5 FTE instructional strategist/librarian) are being moved from Federal Title I/ESA grant funding into the general fund because grant availability has declined, not because of new hires.
District presenters outlined additional drivers: special-education staffing realignment (including adding a case manager at Jamieson to serve pre-K students with disabilities), maintenance and boiler work at LaRanger Middle School, and technology renewal cycles funded after prior American Rescue/ARPA deployments. Eric, the district instructional lead, said the technology plan staggers Chromebook deployments so students receive devices on a predictable cycle.
Administrators emphasized that some budgetary changes are accounting transfers rather than net new spending: copier leases and some telephone hardware were moved from school-level instructional-technology lines into a district operations and maintenance line for centralized oversight.
The superintendent said the board will review health-care rates when final numbers are available in April; the board will receive the recommended budget on April 16 and the RSU 23 budget validation referendum is scheduled for Monday, May 18 in the high school cafeteria. The superintendent provided a public contact for budget questions (budgetcomments@rsu23.org) and his office phone number for follow-up.
Next steps: the board will continue budget development through March, incorporate finalized health-insurance rates when available, and deliberate additional clarifications before the April presentation and the May validation vote.
