Vassalboro school board gets first look at 2025-26 budget

Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members got their first look at sections of the proposed 2025-26 school budget request at a March 4 special meeting. Finance Director Paula Pooler, Transportation Director Ashley Pooler, Technology Director Will Backman and Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer explained parts of the draft.

Pfeiffer praised Paula Pooler, who manages finances for Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow school departments, for her hard work. The proposed budget is neither final nor complete, he emphasized. Some figures might change with additional information, and major accounts, including regular and special education for elementary-school students, are not yet ready for review.

Pfeiffer called the 2025-26 budget “one of the most challenging budgets I’ve seen so far in my career,” with inflation and other factors increasing expenses faster than usual.

One of the largest increases in the accounts reviewed at the March 4 meeting was in tuition, at that point up by almost $355,000.

The amount Vassalboro pays to send its students to high school varies every year, depending on the number of high-school students and on the schools they choose to attend. Different area high schools charge different tuition rates.

In addition, the insured value factor, the amount state law allows private schools – like Erskine Academy, in South China, popular with Vassalboro students – to charge for maintenance of buildings and grounds, is rising from six percent to 10 percent of the school’s tuition rate. This change “has caused an uproar” in other school districts that, like Vassalboro, offer high-school choice, Pfeiffer said.

Ashley Pooler summarized a projected almost $99,000 increase in the transportation account as mostly due to higher salaries and benefits. Pfeiffer and Paula Pooler praised the transponders installed in all three towns’ school buses. The new equipment lets school office personnel tell inquiring parents where their children’s buses are in real time.

Technology and health services accounts are among smaller budget lines with less influence on the total budget. Paula Pooler said the health services budget is down slightly, due to personnel changes. Principal Ira Michaud praised new school nurse Kasey Paquette, calling her “amazing” and “fantastic.”

Paula Pooler identified some of the expenditures that will be reimbursed by state funds. Nonetheless, she warned, the final draft of the 2025-26 school budget will likely cause sticker shock.

School board members were scheduled to continue the budget discussion during their March 11 regular monthly meeting.