Thank you to everyone who came out in the snow last Thursday for the Calais School Board meeting! We were happy to hear from parents and other community members present at the meeting and through phone and email contact.
The result of our discussion was a request to Principal Cat Fair and Superintendent Bill Kimball to create a budget for next year based on six classrooms for K-6, which is a reduction of one classroom from our current structure. We are not considering sending any students to East Montpelier Elementary. We are not cutting the frequency of Allied Arts classes for our students (art, music, physical education, library).
At our meeting on Tuesday, January 16, we will discuss the latest budget draft and expect to vote on this budget to bring to Calais voters on Town Meeting Day. This is what we are looking at:
The requested Expense Budget for Calais Elementary is $1,904,291, which is a -3.82% decrease over the previous year. We are decreasing our school budget, but due to other factors, such as the state tax rate, there will be an increase in taxes. The combined total projected tax increase (from the previous year) is 6.8 cents, or $68 for a $100k Homestead (0.8 cents from the CES budget, 6.0 cents from the U-32 budget).
Please come to our meeting this Tuesday at 6:00 at the elementary school or contact any of us with comments or questions.
Your Calais School Board,
Susanna Culver, Katie Reed, Drew Lamb, Dorothy Naylor, Keith MacMartin
Sculver@u32.org Creed@u32.org Dlamb@u32.org Dnaylor@u32.org Kemacmartin@u32.org
Jan 14, 2025, 6 to 7 PM
Poking Around in the Irish Bronze Age - Field WorkJan 14, 2025, 6:30 to 8 PM
Unitarian Church Ecology LectureJan 18, 2025, 6 to 8 PM