One year after two failed budget proposals and the resignation of the district’s superintendent, RSU 21’s proposed $64.8 million budget for fiscal year 2027 passed its first public vote at a meeting on May 4.

Voters in Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport will vote to ratify that budget on June 9, deciding whether to increase local taxes by $2.6 million, or just under 5% from the previous year.

District Superintendent Dr. Martin Grimm, who was hired in September 2025 to replace Dr. Terri Cooper after she tendered her resignation in March of that year, said this budget is a “level services” budget that maintains educational levels from the previous year. Grimm said the budget balances fiscal responsibility, teaching and learning needs, and staff retention to create the best education experience for the community.

“All three of those are really important and they’re all interconnected,” Grimm said, “and the [top] 1A priority of those is learning and teaching.”

At the May 4 meeting the regular instruction portion of the budget, $26.7 million in total, withstood a proposed reduction of $500,000 backed by several members of the community and two school board members, Bob Domine and Diane Franz.

Proponents of the $500,000 reduction pointed to the school’s recent efficiency audit, which recommended reduction or reallocation of staff due to class size imbalances in different school buildings. But paired with concerns over declining enrollment, Domine, Franz and others argued the district shouldn’t wait to reduce the number of teachers.

“I believe you can’t throw good money after bad,” Domine said. “The very bottom line, the only reason we have schools, is that we have kids, and the only reason we have teachers is that we have kids to teach. If we only have so many kids that need to be taught, then we only need so many teachers. We need the staff that we need to teach the population that we have here in the district. We ought not to kick the can down the road.”

The fiscal 2027 budget has a net decrease in 2.23 positions districtwide, but 98.4% of the budget increase is from the cost of salaries and benefits. 

Ultimately, the regular instruction portion of the budget passed as originally proposed, 91 to 25.

The efficiency audit, conducted by Zeal Education Group, was published in February of this year, timing Grimm called “a little awkward” due to its late spot in the annual budget cycle.  Normally the district presents its first budget to the school board in early March, which did not leave much time for administrators to adjust to the audit recommendations. The audit featured 145 recommendations across nine areas; Grimm said the schools were able to incorporate 34 of the recommendations directly in the budget decisions.

“I don’t think there were any big surprises that came out of the audit,” Grimm said. “I thought the Zeal Group did a really good job in a compressed time frame, and a big part of conducting the assessment was us being able to regain some trust with the community … we should never make a decision that we can’t explain and give data to support the decision.”

Grimm said if the voters pass this level services budget in June, the administration is ready to move ahead with its strategic plan to make targeted adjustments in staffing and other potential areas for savings while improving the overall education experience for students.

“We have a clear vision of what it is we’re trying to accomplish and a roadmap on how to get there,” Grimm said. “Our top priority is the best education experience that we can give our students to make them [ready for their careers], because ultimately that investment is going to come back to the community.”

For those seeking more information, here are links to:

• RSU 21 Efficiency and Effectiveness Audit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/104dQaQEV1J6F_hJ8EoCDcPN41M-gINF0/view

• May 4 RSU 21 Meeting Proposed Budget Warrant: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mwJso8OrXbF4UXZxhQ0Vx_jdzcUJZY8nLk1w95MGeEU/edit?sd=true&tab=t.0

• Fiscal Year 2027 Proposed Budget Book: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w9g43lKHiw4UTXR_bzfZ52KoNeisLEWL/view

(In the interests of full transparency, Diane Franz, who appears in this story, is a member of the board of directors of The Local News.)