DIXFIELD — The RSU 10 board Monday overwhelmingly denied a petition asking for another vote on the $36.5 million school budget because it lacked enough valid signatures.

Board members Michelle Casey of Buckfield, Shawn White of Hartford and Judy Boucher of Byron, abstained from voting.

Candace Casey, who along with Seth Carey was behind the petition effort, said, “We only had 15 days (to gather signatures) from the time of the vote.” They got 94 valid signatures.

Superintendent Craig King said legal counsel advised a minimum of 100 valid signatures are required.

After requesting town clerks in each of the 12 member towns to determine whether each name was on the voter registration list, 23 of the original 117 signatures were not.

Casey said she did not receive the final list until Monday. She also said 13 names determined to be invalid should not have been so identified.

“Those 13 people have voted and have signed on to the (Rumford) budget cap and all of a sudden they aren’t voters?” she said.

Carey said many people did not know of the second vote on the proposed 2013-14 budget.

Board member Barbara Chow said the district followed the law for posting the second vote, including holding a public hearing and a districtwide vote, then a referendum in each town.

Voters in the district rejected the original $36.2 million budget in June by 32 votes out of more than 3,000 cast.

In the July vote, about half that number of voters cast ballots to more than comfortably approve the new figure of $36.5 million. The difference in the budget figure was because between the first and second votes, the state Legislature mandated that the district pay a portion of the state’s share of teacher retirement funding.

The district includes the towns of Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Peru, Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner, Byron, Mexico, Roxbury, Rumford and Hanover.

In other matters Monday, those hired included Carly McCann as speech and language assistant for the Mountain Valley region, Mary Pennington as Mountain Valley Middle School art teacher, Chlorissa Plaisted as Meroby Elementary School kindergarten teacher, and Patrick Forgue as Dirigo High School English teacher. There are six vacancies as the new school year begins Wednesday.

Assistant Superintendent Gloria Jenkins said all classes will have long-term substitutes except for the two-thirds time media technician at Hartford-Sumner Elementary School. The current educational technician will fill the spot until a new person is hired.

Also, board Chairman Jerry Wiley of Buckfield and Vice Chairman Bruce Ross of Dixfield were re-elected to those positions.

Committee chairwomen elected were Betty Barrett for the Finance Committee, Barbara Chow for the Policy Committee and Lolisa Windover for the Personnel Committee.

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