This is the third in a six-part series about the district budget, with this week's focus unpacking the district budget and digging into how it's organized.
The budget is not intended to be a mystery, though at first glance it may appear that way. In reality, the budget is carefully crafted within the structure prescribed by state requirements, with 11 cost centers comprised of 1,179 individual account lines spelling out the exact dollar figure for everything from staff salaries and benefits, to books and supplies, to electricity and snow plowing, and everything in between. Unlike the private sector, which focuses on balance sheets and income statements, school and municipal fund accounting is based on a budget-to-actual expenditure model. Each quarter the district is required to upload its chart of accounts and expenditures to the Maine Department of Education.
Below is a summary of the total cost center expenditures proposed for fiscal year 2025-26, which was approved by voters at the district budget meeting on May 8 and is headed to the ballot box on June 10 for a final vote. (Many thanks to the 100 voters who attended the district budget meeting!) The first five cost centers make up the bulk of the budget and represent direct costs to the classroom for day-to-day learning and instruction, totaling 74% of the total budget with most of this earmarked as salaries and benefits for instructional staff. The remaining 26% of the budget can be found in the last six cost centers, which relate to all aspects of the district that keep our schools operating, such as administration, utilities, debt, busing, custodial services, facility maintenance, etc.
The state average for expenses going directly to the classroom is 68%, with MSAD 51 always landing well above this average. It should be noted that two cost have no funds attached, Career & Technical Education (CTE) and All Other. CTE costs in our region (students attending Portland Arts and Technology High School) is paid directly by the state and is not charged to local districts. We do not use the Other category in MSAD #51 as we believe that expenditures should be assigned to existing cost centers for the sake of transparency.
In case you missed it, explore the previous segments in this series:
Part 2: Determining Budget Priorities
Part 1: Budget Process