FARMINGTON — The superintendent of Regional School Unit 9 will present a new budget-making timeline to the school board Tuesday following the failure of a $33.9 million spending plan Thursday.

It will be the third attempt to pass a school budget for 2017-18.

The school board meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 8 in the Forum at Mt. Blue Campus.

Superintendent Tom Ward said he will present a process that will result in a validation referendum either at the end of September or early October. Before that a districtwide budget vote will be held.

“The board and administration are charged with presenting a budget to our communities that based on the data we have, best meets the needs of our children,” Ward wrote in a written statement. “We present the proposed budget to our communities and our communities respond as to whether or not the majority feel they can support what is being requested. This process continues until the majority of voters approve a budget by referendum vote.”

The district is authorized to operate on the budget that was approved at the last annual budget meeting, which was on July 25, until a final budget is approved, he said.

Before the law was changed, districts were able to operate on the previous year’s budget until a new budget was approved, he said.

The budget amount approved in July was $33.9 million.

The budget failed Thursday by an unofficial vote of 1,290 to 1,429, a difference of 139 votes. Seven of the 10 towns rejected it.

The June 13 validation vote on a proposed $33.89 million budget failed 1,457 to 1,641, a difference of 184 votes.

It was a good turnout considering the time of year when many people take vacations, Ward said.

“We actually made some gains” with the margin between the yes and no votes getting closer, he said.

In 2016, voters passed a budget of $32.7 million by a vote of 1,325 to 1,288, a 37-vote difference.

Both June and August budgets this year were about $1.1 million more than the previous year. In the June vote, the board did not know how much additional revenue the district would receive from the state because the Legislature had not passed a state budget. The projected town assessments were much higher under that proposal.

On Thursday, the proposed budget factored in an additional $729,954 in state aid. More than half of it was voted to lower projected tax assessments to the towns. It also factored in $165,018 of it to reduce the amount the district would need to go out to bond for capital improvement projects. Voters approved a nearly $318,000 bond for capital projects in June.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

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