PALERMO — Voters of Palermo will be deciding on the proposed 2020-2021 school budget for the RSU 12 school district during the July 14 elections. 

RSU 12 serves the communities of Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Whitefield, Windsor and Westport Island. The towns of Palermo, however, is the only community within the Penobscot Bay Pilot coverage area. 

The district has established goals for itself, including: fostering a safe learning environment; providing a personalized, relevant and rigorous curriculum and instruction; encouraging parental involvement in student learning; hiring, retaining, and developing talented educators; maximizing the use of resources; encouraging community involvement; and maintaining a continuous improvement process. 

The district, additionally, has established priorities: maintaining health and wellness services; support bullying prevention programming; maintaining reasonable class sizes; educator professional development; maintaining technology infrastructure; maintaining the capital improvement plan; curriculum improvements; Pre-K programming; school choice; leveraging the Sheepscot Regional Service Center; energy savings through solar farm; preparing for the spread of COVID-19. 

In a budget presentation (see attached PDF), the district highlighted some improvements to the district including the addition of a world languages teacher, adding a Pre-K classroom back to Chelsea, adding a halftime custodian at Whitefield, focusing on facilities maintenance and sports facilities as part of the capital improvement plan, and grant funded security equipment. 

In the presentation, the district also highlight some savings including retirements, support staff due to student changes, 1% health insurance increase and a solar farm generating $25,000 in savings.