ROCKLAND, Maine — The Rockland area school board will have to begin its budget deliberations anew as the proposed $25.9 million budget for 2015-16 was headed to a sound defeat Tuesday night.
The budget had been opposed by both the Thomaston Board of Selectmen and the Rockland City Council.
With only Thomaston’s results not in as of 9 p.m., the budget was going to defeat by a 380-593 tally. Rockland rejected the budget 393-195. Cushing rejected it 99-79. South Thomaston voted 43-42 against the budget. Owls Head supported the package 64-48.
Nearly 200 residents overwhelmingly backed the budget at the district budget meeting on May 21. But the district has a two-step process in which the budget must also be ratified at the polls.
The school board will now have to begin the budget deliberations again to craft a package that will have to again go to a district meeting and to the polls.
The $25.9 million budget would have had Rockland pay an additional $1.2 million in property taxes. Thomaston would have paid an additional $576,000, Cushing $430,000, Owls Head $295,000 and South Thomaston $197,000.
This is the first RSU 13 budget without St. George. That town will formally withdraw from the district on July 1.
The proposed budget called for the elimination of three teaching positions at the middle schools because of reduced enrollment. The proposed budget added an assistant principal at the South Elementary School in Rockland, a gifted and talented program teacher, and a custodian to serve the South Elementary School and Rockland District Middle School.
Another proposed addition involves a pre-K program consisting of three classrooms, which would be paid for with a federal grant.
The budget also includes $800,000 for pay raises (averaging 3 percent) and higher benefit costs.