LINCOLN, Maine – The RSU 67 board of directors has agreed to submit a school budget to voters in Chester, Lincoln and Mattawamkeag for a fifth time.
During a meeting Wednesday, board members expressed frustration at voters’ rejection of the proposed $12.19 million 2012-13 budget on Election Day. They agreed to meet Nov. 20 to restart the budget process.
New interim Chairman Regginal Adams acknowledged that some believe the budget’s four failures signal a lack of confidence in Superintendent Denise Hamlin’s leadership, but said he doesn’t know how to read the votes.
“We are going to give it the very best shot that we can,” Adams said.
With the largest turnout of the four elections, voters rejected the budget by a combined vote of 1,886 to 997 in unofficial totals on Nov. 6. Lincoln and Chester rejected the budget. Mattawamkeag passed it, 181-180. Chester and Lincoln voters rejected reopening Carl Troutt School of Mattawamkeag, which that town’s voters supported.
No Maine Department of Education officials track budget failures, but four is a high number, spokesman David Connerty-Marin said Thursday.
The state has no role to play in such issues, Connerty-Marin said, implying that elections will just have to keep occurring. Under state law, school systems are funded under the previous year’s budget until a new budget is adopted, board members said.
Hamlin, who has defended the budget as achieving goals set for her by the board, wanted to hold a fifth election on Dec. 18, but Lincoln interim Town Manager William Lawrence balked, Treasurer Gilberte Mayo said.
Mayo said that would be a busy time for town workers who are collecting property taxes, among other things. Hamlin said she was unaware that the date was problematic. The school board’s attorney advised that the election must be held by about that time to conform to state law, but Mayo disagreed.
Board members should spend as much time as possible crafting a budget “that represents what voters have implied to us,” board member Debra Tardy said. “We need to show good will.”
“We have done public budget meeting after budget meeting” with the same numbers, Hamlin said. “I am wondering what is it that is in this budget, which is below 2009 expenditure levels, that is not understood. It has been a whole year.”
Board member David Edwards wanted the entire budget set before the board, not the board’s finance committee, with public input via public hearings. Board member John Trask said the committee and public meetings would suffice.
Distortions and disinformation might account for the budget’s repeated failure, Trask and Hamlin said.
Many residents apparently believed that money was budgeted for Troutt School before voters cast their ballots, Hamlin said, but officials merely locked in a heating oil price for the school. No money was allocated or earmarked for Troutt’s reopening, she said.
“Both sides need to come together,” Trask said, calling the controversy “a trust issue,” something that “has nothing to do with the numbers.”
Hamlin, Trask said, shaped the budget according to board directives. The budget doubled in size in nine years, which was “too much for this community to handle,” he said.
“We have been able to reduce the budget and keep things where they needed to be,” Trask said, adding that taxpayers deserve as much consideration as anyone.
Newly elected board member Dolly Phillips said she would discuss her concerns in a closed-door meeting with the board’s attorney on Nov. 28. She is among those who said a vote against the budget is a no-confidence vote in Hamlin.
Board members promised to cut $10,000 from the budget. That’s the approximate cost, they said, of another election.
Really, You had no idea that the town had issues with your proposed election date of December 18th. Who are you kidding! I know for a fact that you were told that it was not a good date. You are a bully and thought you could push your own timeline. Oh so sorry that someone called you on it. BAZINGA!
I agree with runner. I also know that Hamlin knew the town had issues with the new vote date and went ahead with it to spite the town. Playing dumb does not bode well for the budget. The people in that office (superintendent) act like a bunch of keystone cops when you walk in to ask a question.
“I am wondering what is it that is in this budget, which is below 2009 expenditure levels, that is not understood. It has been a whole year.” Really Hamlin?? You call yourself an educator and you can’t figure it out…. resign.
Dear School Board,
1. Get rid of Hamlin
2. Propose a budget
3. Watch the budget pass
There will be no compromise. You allowed her to ruin this district and these schools, now you get rid of her.
If you fet rid of Hamlin(which I don’t care I don’t know her) how are you going to explain to voters that you had to increase the budget by approxiamately $130,000(pay and benefits) to hire a new superintendent? Because you will be paying her until her contract runs out.
The Board made the choice to throw away the taxpayers’ money and put us on the hook with her for three more years when they recently extended her contract and increased her salary. They need to take responsibility for their decision to reward her when they had just cause to get rid of her handed to them by the Court system. But they chose instead to thumb their noses at the taxpayers and voters and now it will cost our district a huge sum of money on top of the havoc and damage she has done to our school system and community .
By the time the 3rd lawsuit is over, it will have cost the district more than that amount.
Come on people, GET OVER IT !!!!! The budget is a good budget , what has happened has happened! Just because you don’t like her doesn’t mean that the budget shouldn’t pass. Do you people know what this is costing the district for your foolishness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No one knows if it is a good budget or not, because Hamlin keeps telling lies when asked what is in there. She is the one that said there was money budgetted for Carl Troutt at one board meeting. Then at the next meeting she said there wasn’t. Which one is it?? She said it costs $2000 for a new vote. Then she said it was $13,000. Which one is it? Not “liking her” has nothing to do with it. She’s the one who said that our Sped Director is certified when people were asking about that hefty raise. And then she said it again. And then, one more time, in front of many people. (I have a photocopy of her conditional certificate, which means that she is not certified.) She’s the one who said that she was not getting a $5000 stipend last year for “overseeing” the uncertified Sped Director. (I have paperwork to prove that is a lie also.) She is sneaky, deceiving, and a chronic liar. 1886 people said NO. A handful of board members keep supporting her lies, extending her contract, and giving her raises. Do any of those board members honestly think that she cares an iota about Chester, Lincoln, or Mattawamkeag?? She’s here for a paycheck. When all is said and done, Hamlin will head back to Milo with a huge bank account, compliments of us, and all thanks to the Sheriff, the Preacher, and the ex-chairwoman.
Dear Denise, Please go away. Signed, 1886 voters