PARIS – Voters in the eight towns of SAD 17 passed all 11 budget articles in Tuesday’s referendum. The $30 million spending plan will require a 4.7 percent increase in local assessments.

The local share question passed by more than 200 votes, with only the town of Oxford voting against it, 250-198. The question called for raising $1,926,841 in additional local funds.

“I think we went out with a conservative budget, and people supported us, and supported us well,” SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman said late Tuesday.

School officials will be analyzing the numbers in more detail Wednesday.

School officials described this year’s budget as bare bones, reflecting the need to meet federal mandates for standards-based reporting and the Maine Learning Results.

In Waterford, voters tied, 110-110, on whether to raise the additional local funds.

The local funds question represents money that needs to be raised over the cost of debt service and the minimum amount the district must raise in order to receive state education funding.

Voters were asked to borrow to finance 56 percent of costs of three capital improvement projects in Question 11. One would fix air quality problems at the Harrison Elementary School, at a district cost of $142,919. A second, for $119,375, would replace the roof and make structural upgrades to the Oxford Hills Middle School. A roof replacement is also scheduled at the Agnes Gray School in West Paris, along with work to remove asbestos at the school.

Two buses are included in this year’s budget, instead of the usual three. Maintenance needs have been scaled back, as have supplies, texts and equipment.

By town, the local assessments needed to pay for the school budget are as follows: Norway, $2.63 million; Oxford, $2.5 million; Harrison, $2.37 million; Paris, $2.2 million; Otisfield, $1.47 million; Waterford, $1.23 million; West Paris, $793,600; and Hebron, $470,000.

This year’s warrant contained explanations of the wording of the warrant items, which voters have complained are difficult to understand.

The budget included funding for Oxford Hills Technical School at $2.308 million, an increase of just over 2 percent. The technical school is adding an early childhood education program this year.

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