At a December 17 meeting at the Pembroke Elementary School, the AOS 77 joint school committee unanimously approved a 2025-2026 budget that is nearly 14% higher than the current budget, with increase in the amount to be raised through local taxation being just over 7%.
      The drivers of the budget increase include raises for central office staff and the cost of leasing the new office in Pembroke. While the rental cost last year was none when the office was located at the Eastport Elementary School, according to the budget, this coming year it will be $26,400. The AOS board had voted last June to approve moving to the Triangle building in Pembroke, despite the cost increase, with space and security concerns cited as reasons.
      Lack of space, though, is also an issue at the Pembroke building, as the AOS budget for next year includes funding for building an addition onto the Triangle building, with the cost estimated to be about $10,000, spread over two years. The addition will be on the 10'x 14' loading dock at the rear of the building and is needed for storage, according to Superintendent MaryEllen Day.
      While the budget will increase by 13.8% to $856,027, the amount being raised through local taxes is increasing 7.13% to $806,027. To reduce the hike in the local cost, the budget uses $10,000 from the fund balance and $40,000 from grant management income. Day explains that the audit for the 2023?2024 budget confirms a fund balance of $17,982. She also says that the central office staff handle the administrative work for the grants that are received by schools in the AOS. For that work, the office is allowed to use up to 5% of the total grant amount to cover administrative costs. The $40,000 in the 2024-2025 budget is about 2% of the total grant amount, according to Day.
      For the nine towns in the AOS, the percentage increase in their assessments, which is based on resident student enrollment, will be greatest for Charlotte, with a 40.8% hike to $49,467; Crawford, with a 29% increase to $8,730; Pembroke, with a 12% increase to $114,939; and Lubec, which will see a 10% hike to $180,410. Eastport's share will increase 3.2% to $165,861.
      While the AOS board usually does not approve the budget when presented with the first draft, it did so this year. A date has not yet been set for the vote to approve the budget by the residents of the towns in the district.
      In other action, the board approved 5% raises for central office positions, including the superintendent, for a salary of $107,100; Business Manager Chad Allen, for a salary of $73,500; and the other office staff. Special Education Director Beth Cushing's salary increase, to $94,500, had been approved last year. The employer contribution for a retirement fund for central office staff will increase from 4% to 5%.
      The board also agreed to holding an open house for the new AOS office in the spring, although a date was not set.
      Day reported during the meeting that the schools in AOS 77 have used all of the federal COVID relief funding they were awarded. The deadline for submitting invoices for those funds was December 13, and according to the Maine Department of Education over $28 million, or about 8% of the funds awarded in the state, was not used. "We've spent every single dime," she says of the AOS 77 schools.