PARIS – SAD 17 voters refused Tuesday to raise $1.9 million for the local share of education costs, thereby defeating the entire $31.2 million budget for the first time in the district’s history.
“We don’t have a budget at this point,” Superintendent Mark Eastman said after the vote. “It’s a disappointment. We’ll definitely have to go back for another vote.”
Eastman said SAD 17 voters have never rejected the local share in the nine years they have voted on the proposed budget by referendum. Prior to that, the district held an eight-town meeting to approve the budget.
The district cannot get its state school funding if it declines to raise the mandatory local amount.
The vote was 921-852 against raising the local share, according to Eastman, who said the SAD 17 Board of Directors will take up the budget issue when they meet Monday. Ironically, voters approved the question of whether the district could spend the local share.
“They voted against raising the money, but voted in favor of spending it,” Eastman said. “That tells me the voters are a little confused.”
Eastman said he thinks a “supplemental” budget request of nearly $500,000, which would have reinstated some budget cuts, contributed to voter confusion. The extra money was defeated on a vote of 963-802, Eastman said.
He also thinks SAD 17 voters “were sending a message to the state” that they did not appreciate receiving a $226,000 increase in state funding at a time when fixed costs alone increased $1.2 million.
The proposed budget represented a 2.98 percent increase over the 2004-05 budget of $30,382,658, and included $96,204 to purchase and lease new buses.
The $493,941 supplemental article was added to the referendum after parents and residents appeared at a Budget Committee meeting in protest of cuts made to lower the budget. With the article, the budget would have increased by 4.61 percent to $31,781,861.
Cuts for the 2005-06 school year include educational technician and support staff positions, special education staff positions, a half-time Hebron teacher and full-time guidance counselor position, staff development and field trip money, some after-school bus routes, and funds for maintenance, supplies, textbooks and instructional technology.
Otisfield, Waterford and Harrison are seeing bigger increases in school spending this year, in part because of a new school funding formula being phased in by the state.
School expenses for the 2005-06 fiscal year have actually decreased for Hebron, West Paris and Paris, while Oxford and Norway are seeing minor increases.
District officials have estimated that there are about 14,000 registered voters in the region served by SAD 17. The voter turnout in the aggregate Tuesday was about 20 percent, Eastman said.
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