BIDDEFORD — The concerted effort to find savings and additional revenue for the school district has paid off, according to Biddeford’s school superintendent, and will result in a more stabilized budget and a lesser impact on property taxpayers.

From savings and new revenue, said Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Ray, he estimates the school department will have a carryover of approximately $929,000 that can be applied to the Fiscal Year 2016 budget, which will begin on July 1, 2015.

Ray said he and other administrators began working on that budget soon after the current year’s education budget was passed by Biddeford voters in June.

About half of the carryover amount, $525,000, comes from special education, according to City Manager John Bubier’s report to the city council dated Sept. 2.

The creation of the Tiger Center, located behind the Biddeford Primary School, keeps special education students in the Biddeford School district rather than sending them to more expensive out-of district schools, said Ray.

In addition to saving money for the district and taxpayers, according to Bubier’s report, “Educat(ing) students in the school department is a priority for us, as students and parents deserve the best-developed programs within city limits.”

Ray said the large carryover amount will be important for next year’s budget because the district received a one-time state subsidy of $479,000 for the current budget. If those funds hadn’t been made up, it would have left a hole in the budget that could have caused significant reductions in the school department.

“For at least another year, we have plugged the hole,” he said.

An additional $200,000 in revenue came into the district, said Ray, through more Medicaid payments, rental fees and working with the Dayton School District.

Some, but not all, of the cost savings and new revenues will be sustainable, he said. So in addition, said Ray, the Biddeford School Department continues to look for more ways to save money and increase revenues.

For instance, he said, an advisory group was formed, which met for the first time last week, to look into creating a school district charter school. The school department currently spends $75,000 on out-of-district and virtual charter schools, which is money that could be kept in district, said Ray.

The new valuation of the city, which is $140 million lower than before, could also be beneficial for the school department, he said.

Usually, the state school funding formula is tied to a city’s valuation and the lower the value, the more funds a school district receives.

However, said Mayor Alan Casavant, “sometimes the state and city valuations are different.” If the state valuation is higher, that would mean less funding for the school department. The school funding formula also depends on who gets elected in the legislature and as governor, he said.

For instance, he said, based on the poverty rate, Biddeford should be getting more education funds from the state than it does.

Locally, said Casavant, he is pleased with the work school administrators have done to create savings and find new revenue to put less of a burden on city property taxpayers.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.