After Wiscasset Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson offered ways to get the 2026-27 budget draft down to $11.4 million, Vice Chair Jonathan Barnes noted residents passed the $10.7 million, 2025-26 school budget by two votes. And he said at least 20 people told him they regretted not going to vote, because they would have voted it down.

"Something to consider," Barnes said.

"We'll, doesn't matter. We could put a budget out there for $5 million, they might turn it down," member Doug Merrill said. He said people are not happy, because they have to spend a lot of money "everywhere ... We're seeing people, older people, they can't live where they've lived their whole lives. Not the schools' fault. It's just the way everything is."

"Costs are up everywhere," Barnes agreed. Then he added, "I think 11.4 (million dollars) is never going to fly."

The comments came in a Feb. 25 school budget workshop where Andersson offered a net, $364,560 paring of her recent draft of about $11.7 million, which was down about million dollars from a first draft. The first one had higher raises figured in for teachers and support staff; both contracts are to be negotiated this year.

Said member Brycson Grover, "When there's negotiations due, you're able to set that price? And if we didn't want to increase it at all, we could say zero, is that what you're saying?"

"No, you're saying that," Andersson said. "You're asking. But we could ... You could go in and tell them zero, and see what happens ...," Andersson said. "We could try and go in for 1.5% on the base and see how that goes for us," but she added, Wiscasset's salaries have gotten more competitive and that has stemmed attrition.

"We're still lower than our neighbors, but we're competitive," she said. "We used to be outside of the fence. Now, we're inside the fence. We're in the same ballpark, we're not on the diamond yet, though. We're a lot closer."

Andersson said the savings she was offering that night were “probably pretty optimistic,” based on projections for students who will get special education outside the district. “That’s our biggest increase in the budget this year, is special ed out-of-district placement," she told the committee. The trimming she offered included eliminating a $101,079 First 10 community grant coordinator job because, Andersson said, that grant hasrun out; budgeting $20,000 instead of $40,000 for hiring out special ed transport since this year the department has been doing the transport; $52,836 for new accounting software “we could live without  … I guess for another year. We could just kick that can down the road,” Andersson said. And she said eliminating a part-time attendance secretary job would save $18,379 plus $1,400 in benefits. 

With John Merry’s retirement, Andersson is proposing to split transportation and facilities director into two jobs “and then condense them down, so … a partial elimination in two areas, by combining the (.5) transportation director with the lead bus driver job and, with a full-time maintenance staff member retiring, combining that job with (.5) facilities director “into one position and eliminate half the salary.” The proposal would save about $50,000, Andersson said. 

Grover said the committee should suggest Andersson go "back to the drawing board and come back with her best, final budget ... The superintendent gets paid to bring the best budget to us ... We're going over this too much. Kim needs to come back with her bottom dollar."

"I love that idea. Let's do that," Andersson said. She and the committee settled on her coming back to the committee March 19 with three budget scenarios: Flat with the 2025-26 budget; 3% less; and 3% higher. The session is at 6 p.m. in the Wiscasset Middle High School library.

Sessions were also planned, if needed, for 5 p.m. March 23 and 25, 6 p.m. March 26 and a special meeting at 6 p.m. April 1 for the committee to adopt the budget offer. Andersson has asked the committee to try to adopt a proposal by April 1 for her to give to the town office by April 2, for the April 7 selectboard meeting.