The Maine School Administrative District 75 Board of Directors has endorsed a proposed 5.5% budget increase for the 2025-26 school year that includes no major changes to staffing or services.
However, school board leaders said the spending plan could face unexpected changes in the months ahead, citing threatened cuts to federal education funding.
“There’s a heightened level of uncertainty with everything in this budget,” said school board Chair Amy Spelke, of Topsham, at an April 10 public hearing. MSAD 75 includes Harpswell, Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham.
The U.S. Department of Education has announced plans to withhold federal K-12 education funding from Maine, citing the state’s refusal to comply with Title IX as interpreted under a recent executive order from President Donald Trump.
The order mandates that schools receiving federal funds must prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls sports. The Trump administration contends that Maine’s policies allowing such participation violate federal law. About 10% of the state’s K-12 funding comes from the federal government.
School board Vice Chair Ryan Larsen, of Harpswell, who also leads the board’s Finance Committee, said the district has little choice but to plan for next year’s budget without knowing the outcome of the current dispute between Maine and the Trump administration.
“It’s a fluid situation, and I think we want to remain focused on the things that we know now,” Larsen said. “We didn’t think that we could responsibly try to predetermine what may be coming.”
As proposed, next year’s budget would total about $57.9 million, compared with $54.8 million in the current school year. A big part of the increase is attributable to a projected 13% jump in employee health insurance costs, school officials said. The number of teachers wouldn’t change, aside from the addition of two new prekindergarten classes fully funded by the state.
The portion of the budget funded by local towns would increase by 9% to about $34.4 million. Harpswell’s share of that would be roughly $11.3 million, an 8.7% increase from the current year. Its passage also would trigger increases in town contributions of 8.1% from Topsham, 11.2% from Bowdoin and 10.4% from Bowdoinham.
Harpswell Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said the town’s property tax rate is estimated to increase to $6.64 per $1,000 of valuation, an increase of 28 cents, or 4.4%.
The Harpswell Select Board set the tax rate in August last year. While the MSAD 75 assessment is the biggest factor at about 65%, the rate is also affected by the municipal budget, the county tax, growth of the tax base from development and other considerations.
A group of Harpswell Community School parents wrote letters to the district in March asking it to add another first grade class next year to prevent an oversized class that would exceed the district’s guidelines. However, district officials said an additional class isn’t needed.
The parents, whose kids are currently in kindergarten, noted that the Community School’s sole kindergarten class has 22 students. MSAD 75’s guidelines say the optimal first grade class size is 18, and the maximum should be 20.
District Superintendent of Schools Heidi O’Leary responded to the parents in a March 21 letter, saying that while the current class does exceed the district’s optimal size, additional staffing has been provided to ensure students receive adequate support.
She said once the district confirmed the kindergarten class’s unusually large size last summer, it assigned a full-time paraprofessional and allocated additional instructional support through a Title I-funded teacher, “reducing the student-to-teacher ratio during key instructional periods.”
“As these students transition into first grade next year, the district remains committed to actively reviewing class sizes, staffing resources, and enrollment projections to make data-driven decisions that prioritize student success,” O’Leary wrote. “We will continue to evaluate available staffing and funding sources to ensure all students receive the best possible learning environment.”
A district budget meeting for voters is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 15, at the Orion Performing Arts Center at Mt. Ararat Middle School in Topsham. The final vote will be a budget validation referendum set for June 10.
