RSU 9 board approves FY25 budget, sets budget meeting and referendum dates and OKs several reserve transfers

The RSU 9 School Board voted unanimously to approve the district’s fiscal year 2024–25 budget and to advance several related warrant articles to the annual budget meeting.

Board members approved the budget after a motion to "approve the FY25 RSU 9 budget as presented" was moved and seconded; the chair then called the vote and members signaled unanimous approval to move the budget forward to the annual meeting.

The board set the annual budget meeting for Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at 7 p.m. in Bjorn Auditorium at the Mount Blue Campus and set the budget validation referendum for Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Members also discussed whether warrant articles should be written as "open" (recommended amounts that can go up or down) or "closed" (set amounts that can only be reduced), and directed the district’s lawyer to prepare the article language consistent with the board’s decisions.

In a series of unanimous votes, the board authorized several warrant articles and reserve actions to appear on the warrant:
- An article giving the board three options to use additional state subsidy: increase expenditures for school purposes, increase allocations to reserve funds, or decrease the local cost-share expectation for property-tax funding of public education.
- An article authorizing transfers that exceed 5% of a cost center’s appropriation to another cost center for FY24–25, provided the district’s total authorized budget is not increased.
- Authorization for the district to expend state, federal and other grants received during the fiscal year, so long as those grants do not require new local appropriations.
- A motion authorizing transfer of up to $250,000 to the capital reserve fund from available fund balances at the end of FY23–24, to be expended at the board’s discretion for capital projects.
- A motion authorizing transfer of up to $300,000 to the special education reserve fund from available fund balances at the end of FY23–24, with board discretion to expend as needed amid concerns about next year’s special-education funding.
- Authorization to transfer up to $300,000 into a reserve fund from proceeds including sales of district electronic devices and to expend from that reserve at the board’s discretion.

Why it matters: Those motions set parameters for how the district will use one-time fund balances, grant awards and device-sale proceeds to support capital projects, special education needs and budget flexibility. The actions determine what voters will see on the warrant and preserve board discretion to move funds among accounts within limits the board approved.

What’s next: The budget advances to the annual budget meeting on May 21; the validation referendum is scheduled for June 11. The board also agreed to reschedule a related June meeting to June 13 so items can be handled together.

Votes at a glance: All motions reported in this meeting were approved unanimously on the record; the meeting transcript records "all in favor" and "unanimous" for each vote called by the chair. Specific roll-call tallies were not read into the record in the provided transcript.

Provenance: Transcript discussion and motions introducing and approving the FY25 budget and related warrant-article motions begin at SEG 131 and continue through SEG 416.