CUMBERLAND — A proposed $37.3 million budget for School Administrative District 51 goes to referendum vote in Cumberland and North Yarmouth on Tuesday.

The school budget represents a 3.8 percent spending increase from the current year. It also reflects a $442,000 decrease in state subsidy, from $11.3 million this year to $10.9 million next year, bringing the three-year decline to more than $1 million, Superintendent Jeff Porter has said.

The original budget proposal rolled out in March included a 4.65 percent increase in spending. But $450,000 savings in projected employee health insurance costs, along with another $75,000 in savings because of retirements and salary adjustments, helped shave that hike.

Those savings led Porter to propose reinstating three positions that were scheduled to be cut: a teacher at both Greely middle and high schools and an elementary-level educational technician. He also proposes adding a new kindergarten teacher at the Mabel I. Wilson School because of an increase of about 20 more students. The budget also had already included a second-grade teacher at the Wilson School to address growing class sizes.

The budget would result in an 83-cent or 4.42 percent tax rate increase per $1,000 of property valuation in Cumberland, adding $249 annually to a home assessed at $300,000. In North Yarmouth, 94 cents or 5.79 percent would be added to the tax rate, increasing property taxes by $282 on a $300,000 home.

Voting takes place Tuesday from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. at the former North Yarmouth Memorial School, 120 Memorial Highway, and at Cumberland Town Hall, 290 Tuttle Road.

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: learics.

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