Before the teachers' contract that runs through August 2026, some teachers could make more just about anywhere else in the area, Wiscasset Superintendent of Schools Kim Andersson said Feb. 11. Presenting the latest 2025-26 budget draft, Andersson said the contractually obligated, 5% overall pay hike is partly why the budget draft would ask 10.6% more in local taxes than this year's budget did, but less state aid is "the kicker," she said. 

"That contract is what stops the bleed in staff turnover," Andersson said. She sought the school committee's guidance on any changes to the budget draft. She said state aid is down about $400,000 given Wiscasset's enrollment drop and a rise in the state valuation of the town.

"I have ideas of things that I could cut but I don't want to cut but I've thought about it, but I think I've gone far enough without guidance from you," Andersson told the committee. It plans a Feb. 25 workshop. Andersson supported that. "I feel like we have more work to do," she said.

"Yeah, and I think we need to drill down into some of these spaces and places to figure that out," member Tracey Whitney said. 

Fielding audience and committee questions, Andersson said one idea might be to split the Wiscasset Elementary School assistant principal's job into that work and PreK coordination.

In documents and in the Feb. 11 discussion in Wiscasset Middle High School's library and on YouTube, and a next-morning phone interview, Andersson gave the latest numbers. A January draft's would-be 2025-26 cost hike of about 6% was down to about 4%; and with the revenue projections now in, the budget draft would require that 10.6% hike in the local ask.

"The expense side isn't too terrible. What's getting us is the cut in the subsidy. That's the kicker," Andersson said.

The draft includes taking a proposed $600,000 from the undesignated fund balance, which she said stood at $1.235 million as of Feb. 12. Andersson told Wiscasset Newspaper she would rather find more ways to save in the budget than take more than the $600,000 to offset taxes, the same tap as last year.

Andersson said she will probably offer the committee two or three scenarios Feb. 25. The budget timeline presented Feb. 11 calls for a presentation to the selectboard March 4; the school committee's budget vote and then a town meeting vote, both dates to be determined; and a referendum June 10.

Outside the budget, Andersson is proposing tapping the undesignated fund balance for another $324,427, to renovate WMHS's Stover Auditorium. "The (gym) floor desperately needs to be repaired. It's become unsafe for our athletes to play on, there are divots in the floor. The bleachers cannot be repaired any longer unless you manufacture pieces ... So I'd really like to do this (project)," she said.

Also Feb. 11, Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) Coordinator Timothy Fortier told the committee about a “career and personal development program” he said he and Principal Sarah Hubert came up with this school year, for sixth and seventh graders. Through field trips and school visits by representatives from Bath Iron Works, Hearty Roots, the district attorney's office, emergency medical services and others, students get to “experience these trades hands-on at an early age (and see) what success could be for them,” and what they like or maybe what they don’t, he said.

Every community member taking part has been “insanely excited to come  into the school and teach their job,” he added. Fortier said this is also showing students the community cares about them. 

The committee will thank the selectboard for the town’s recent weeks of sanding and salting driveways, day or night, when the school department’s plowing contractor had an equipment issue. Public works helped “without pause” when approached, Transportation and Maintenance Director John Merry said.