Gorham’s School Committee is expected to adopt a $28 million budget, up 7.2 percent from last year, on April 12.
The budget represents an almost $1.9 million increase over last year’s $26.1 million. It would increase the town’s tax rate by 36 cents for each $1,000 of valuation.
The budget would eliminate two teaching positions along with one ed tech. But School Committee member Jason Libby objected last week in a workshop. “I’m not going to support the budget,” Libby said. ‘I’m not going to back this.”
With the vote still a week away, Jim Hager, School Committee chairman, declined to name which schools would be impacted with the teacher cuts. Superintendent Ted Sharp said in last week’s workshop that the reduction might be achieved through attrition so that no one would lose a job.
The budget would also drop freshman soccer for the year for both boys and girls. Hager said the committee wasn’t funding freshman soccer because not enough students were interested to “warrant having a team.”
The majority of the School Committee seemed to favor trimming an earlier proposed 7.4 percent hike to 7.2 percent. Hager said the committee worked hard to hold down the budget increase. “Seven point two percent is as close to the bone as we can shave it,” Hager said.
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