District Is On the Move...East?

Yesterday's Bangor Daily News had two articles about District happenings, one about administrative personnel moves, and the other about the proposed budget.

The personnel moves have already been reported on this site (here), and the article contributes only one new bit of information:

School officials have begun a search for a new principal at Dexter Middle School...

The other article lifts the veil from the budget. (Obviously, quite a bit more information will be out soon, in the run-up to the May 24th informational meeting.)

The overall budget contains a 5.64% increase, with a very small decrease in total local assessments: $1042, or about one-twentieth of one percent (.05%). This steady-state on assessments is due to an increase in subsidy from the state of $477,196.

The article explains the budget growth as follows:

The proposed budget includes an increase of $455,967 in fixed costs - salaries, health insurance, fuel and heating oil.

It also includes funds for an additional mathematics instructor at Dexter Regional High School and new mathematics textbooks, the expansion of a speech therapist position from three to five days a week, and $62,680 to repair the north academic wing roof on the high school.

One item of particular interest here is that although the total local assessments remain steady, there's a shift occurring between the towns, with Garland and Exeter's assessments rising while Dexter and Ripley's decease. This would seem to point to a fair amount of real estate activity in the "east."

Word comes to us as well of very high kindergarten pre-registrations in Garland (for both Garland and Exeter), around 40, almost exactly the same as the pre-registration for Dexter (Dexter and Ripley). That's the reason for a space issue in Garland, the subject of a parent's meeting on April 24, and the subject of the Facilities Committee meeting this evening (7 pm, Superintendent's Office).

Is the District's weight shifting east? Is there a fault line somewhere near the Bud Ellms field where the plates are slipping apart? Joking aside, these questions can be important in determining the ideal site for a new school. It may also raise important political questions. The concerns of those in the "east" become more important if that's where the greatest growth is occurring.