RSU 04 workshop reviews cost centers, shifts maintenance and tech lines; library and curriculum changes noted

At a lengthy budget workshop, RSU 04 school staff walked trustees through a line-by-line review of cost centers 3, 4 and 5 and explained why some large shifts appear as reductions even while district obligations remain.

Cost center 3 (career and technical education) now includes an LRTC tuition line that was zero in earlier years; Sam said FY26 tuition for RSU 04 was $8,218 and FY27 reflects an increase of just over $5,000 tied primarily to a new landscaping program and higher utilities at Lewiston Regional Technical Center. The district reported 91 students participate in LRTC programming while the district's allotted slot count is 56, which explains part of the tuition dynamic.

In cost center 4 (other instruction), Sam explained a net decrease of roughly $79,000 from the prior year. That shift is largely the result of moving routine field maintenance into cost center 9 (facilities/maintenance). Sam estimated about a $20,000 reduction came from reassigning field maintenance while other reductions and prior one-time repairs (for example a tennis-court repair in excess of $30,000 recorded in FY26) also shaped the comparison. The athletics cluster will retain a safety repair to the high-school football end zone, with approximately one quarter funded from current-year dollars and three quarters budgeted in FY27.

Cost center 5 (student and staff support) increased by about $30,700. The board heard that guidance services were being restructured at several schools (including a split counselor model and a full-time guidance director at the high school), nursing lines reflected staff and benefit increases and equipment-replacement cycles (AED replacement), and improvement-of-instruction dollars were consolidated to fund assessment and curriculum tools (NWEA, iObservation, and district adoption of IXL at $16,000). Staff also cited an increase to tuition-reimbursement lines to support teachers working toward certification; that line was adjusted after a staff survey indicated several educators require coursework for conditional certifications.

Technology accounts showed significant reallocation: school-based IT technicians were re-budgeted as half-time allocations where appropriate, subscription services were consolidated to reduce duplicate costs (firewall/VPN, student-safety filters and mental-health awareness tools), the district proposed an iPad lease for high-school devices (part of a districtwide teacher device refresh as well), and hotspot expense was reduced by committing to smaller on‑demand activations. Stephanie, who led the technology summary, said consolidation and vendor renegotiation produced an instructional-technology reduction of about $93,000 overall.

Library services were adjusted after Savata's Primary closure reassigned students and books; the district moved Destiny Follett (library-management software) into the library budget and repurposed some staff time to Title-funded interventions. The overall library subtotal is slightly down from last year because of those adjustments.

Board members asked for follow-up data requests (detailed lists of subscriptions and per-program costs; precise turf/irrigation estimates; summer-school attendance numbers), and staff agreed to return with those items. No formal votes were taken at the workshop.