Westport Island and Alna would save on school costs under Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12’s budget offer. According to numbers that district officials shared with Alna selectmen March 9, Alna taxpayers would spend $15.01 less on education, and Westport Islanders, $55.83 less, than they did last year for every $100,000 of assessed value.

The next budget is the first one without the safety net that eased towns through the transition to a new cost-sharing formula, Finance Committee Chairman Jerry Nault said. For towns that pay more under the formula, the net allowed the hit to be gradual; for Alna and Westport Island, it delayed some of the benefit.

But now the net is timing out. “Everybody is standing on their own two feet right now, for the first time,” Nault told reporters before the start of the meeting at the fire station.

This year, Alna and Westport Island are the only towns projected to get a smaller bill than last year’s. Chelsea taxpayers would pay the district $74.91 more than they did last year for every $100,000 of assessed value, according to the district’s budget materials; Palermo, $47.38 more; Somerville, $78.25 more; Whitefield, $20.10 more; and Windsor, $122.42 more.

Alna was the first town that district officials visited as they shop the proposed budget to all seven member towns, ahead of a 6:30 p.m., May 19 budget meeting at Chelsea Elementary School.

Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle encouraged Alna residents to attend the budget meeting that can raise, lower, or keep each piece of the proposal before the entire package goes to the polls. Last year, Alna attendees helped defeat a proposed $1,000,000 cut at the budget meeting, Tuttle recalled.

Ralph Hilton, one of Alna’s representatives on the district board, said people should attend whether they have school-age children or not, because taxes are also involved.

The district is proposing a $20,876,000 budget, up 2.98 percent, or $604,079, from the current, $20,271,921in spending.

The proposal restores a principal in Palermo to full-time. The job was cut to seven-tenths when the district formed, officials said. “That has been a push for a while that they have a full-time principal,” Tuttle said.

A $137,662, or 13.5 percent, hike is proposed in transportation. “We perhaps let our fleet get too old and we have a lot of repairs going on and so now we’re trying to catch up and replace buses,” Tuttle said.

However, Nault pointed out that more state aid is on the way, following the Legislature’s decision earlier that day to put another $15,000,000 into education. 

Tuttle highlighted ways he said the district has been working improve service, including expanding families’ options for school choice. Transportation may become available for children in the district to attend Edgecomb Eddy School, a nice building that has room for more students, district officials said.

They expressed hope that Alna families will consider Whitefield Elementary School. Alna officials suggested the district could give a presentation in town about the school’s programs.

In addition to school choice, the district has been making its anti-bullying efforts, technology, pre-kindergarten, and student-centered learning, among other areas, a priority, Tuttle said.

“We’ve got a lot going on. We’re very proud of what we’re up to, and we try to do this keeping in mind the burden of local taxes,” he said.

No one raised concerns about the budget offer. Third Selectman Doug Baston cited the district’s care in spending decisions. “You guys put a lot of time into squeezing as much blood out of the turnip as you can ... and there’s nothing I can find to criticize,” he said.

The district’s strategic planning committee is always seeking new members, Tuttle said; anyone interested should contact their town’s representatives to the district, he said.