TURNER — After a lengthy discussion about spending priorities and grappling with losing teaching positions, Maine School Administrative District 52 directors voted 7-2 on April 10 for a $37.36 million budget for 2025-26. It’s roughly a 6.8% increase from last year’s $35 million.

Voting in favor were Chairman Joseph McLean and Crystal Barus, both of Leeds, Breanna Allard and Kyle Purington, both of Greene, and Ashley Michaud, Jaime Johnson and Alex Cutter, all of Turner. Voting against were Vice Chairman Peter Ricker of Turner and Anthony Shostak of Greene.

The overall municipal appropriation for next year is $16.53 million, a nearly 7.5% increase compared to this year’s $15.38 million.

The district’s state subsidy for next year increased to $20.26 million, compared to $18.94 million this fiscal year.

Board members early in the budget process set a goal of keeping the increase to the local share below 8% to improve the chances of passage.

Under the proposal, Turner’s share would be a 7.8% increase, or $8.02 million. The property tax rate for the education portion would increase by 89 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, resulting in a $222.50 increase on a property valued at $250,000, according to board meeting documents.

Greene would see a 6.8% increase in its share, or a $5.47 million assessment. The property tax rate for the education portion would increase by 94 cents, resulting in a $235 increase on a property valued at $250,000, the meeting documents said.

Leeds would see a 7.7% increase, or a $3.04 million assessment. It would raise the tax rate for the education portion by 67 cents, adding $167.50 to a property valued at $250,000.

Though administrators did keep the local share below 8%, it came at a cost to staffing positions.

A total of 22 positions were eliminated from the budget, the meeting documents said. Of those, 11 were filled and 11 were not. The vast majority of impacted employees are moving to open positions in the district, while others chose not transfer or to retire, Superintendent Cari Medd said in an email Wednesday.

One staffing cut directors grappled with was eliminating a vacant science teacher position at Leavitt Area High School in Turner, which would likely result in fewer science elective classes, administrators said.

Board member Crystal Barus proposed an amendment to the budget that would have reinstated the position. It failed 6-3

Director Breanna Allard of Greene identified some areas she thought could be cut to fund the science teacher position, including water bottle filling stations, replacing lockers and the music room carpet, and fire retardant shades at Tripp Middle School in Turner, for a total of about $45,000.

Many of those projects had already been put off in past budgets and needed to be done, including replacing two water bottle filling stations because of elevated lead levels, Medd said.

Shostak proposed eliminating new electronic devices for students in grades K-3, which would have provided about $80,000 to keep the high school science teacher. That failed 8-1. Some board members thought it was too late to make such a sweeping change.

Michaud proposed an amendment to use undesignated funds to cover the cost of the science teacher position, but that too failed by a vote of 8-1. Some directors and administrators were concerned it could require the district to raise the same amount of money in next year’s budget.

There was discussion about instructional coaches for classroom teachers. Ricker said there are six instructional coaches in the district and he prefers to see classroom teacher positions retained before positions that do not work directly with students.

Shostak said he has heard from Greene residents concerned about the cost of instructional coaches. Though he did not recommend any of those positions be eliminated, at some point he would like to look at how effective they are at increasing student test scores.

The board will hold a public hearing on the budget May 8 and residents of Greene, Leeds and Turner vote on it May 22.