In a strange twist, seven members of the Regional School Unit 16 board Monday voted against approval of a $24.2 million budget while six favored it.
But thanks to weighted voting, a necessity to even out the population differences among the three towns of Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland, the proposed spending plan was adopted by a 446-445 vote.
Most of the members said they feared that without making any cuts in the budget, voters on July 14 will shoot down the spending plan. Those favoring it, though, said it’s important to push forward with carefully developed plans.
Mary Martin of Mechanic Falls, the panel’s chairwoman, said she doesn’t want “to take away a penny from kids,” but sought a $200,000 reduction to help garner support she said may be needed to win over wary voters.
Board member James Crouse of Minot said the budget proposal “is not going to pass” as it is.
One of those supporting the budget, Ed Rabasco of Poland, said RSU 16’s spending levels are low compared to other districts. He said nobody ever says “this is the year to raise taxes,” but sometimes it’s necessary.
Travis Ritchie of Mechanic Falls said the schools are not the place to try to offer people tax relief.
“We already spend far less per student than the average Maine district,” Ritchie said.
The bottom line in the spending plan would rise by 7.6% in the coming year, with most of the increase needed to cover pay hikes for teachers and support staff by 5%. It would also cover three new positions, including a world languages teacher at Poland Regional High School and a dean of students at Minot Consolidated School.
The board took two votes during its meeting via Zoom. In the first, the panel voted down a bid to slice the budget to $24 million by a 446-445 vote. The second, for a $24.2 million, won by the same margin as every member switched sides from the previous vote.
Norm Davis, a board member from Poland, said it is “the most difficult budget” he’s seen in almost two decades, especially given all the uncertainty about what it will take to reopen schools in the fall.
“I’m really afraid we’re going to have some unprecedented costs,” Davis said.
Those favoring the $24.2 million budget were Rabasco, Joe Parent, Melanie Harvey, Mike Lacasse, Scott Lessard and Ritchie. The others preferred a reduction except two who were absent: Chelsea Clavet and Lou Goulet, both from Mechanic Falls.
The reason for weighted voting is that while each town has five members on the school board, their populations are quite different. To preserve the constitutional requirement that ensures an equality among voters, the members from bigger towns are given weighted votes that reflect the population percentages of each town. In this case, it gives representatives from Poland in particular more clout than those from the two smaller communities.
But it’s not clear that Poland’s voters will prove as supportive as the RSU 16 board.
The chairwoman of the town government, Mary-Beth Taylor, said that without major cuts, “most likely” the budget won’t pass.
There will be a public hearing on the budget June 24.
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