FORT KENT, Maine — When the SAD 27 board of directors cut more than $700,000 from its proposed 2015-2016 budget turned down by voters last month, it found some of those cuts by transferring three grades from Wallagrass and Eagle Lake elementary schools to Fort Kent.
The board reversed that decision just before the district budget meeting Thursday night and instructed the superintendent to find $100,000 in the proposed $11.1 million budget to keep those third-, fourth- and fifth-graders where they are for at least another year.
On Thursday, residents approved the $11.1 million budget, which will leave the property tax rate unchanged, according to Tim Doak, district superintendent.
The budget now goes to a districtwide referendum vote on July 30.
Last month, residents turned down a proposed $12.8 million budget and the 20 percent property tax increase it would have caused, sending the school board back to the drawing board.
“There needs to be a group that comes together to map out the future of SAD 27,” Doak told the board before the budget hearing. “We are going to get our budgets voted down every year if we don’t come up with a plan [because] we know double-digit tax increases won’t pass.”
Those discussions will happen without Doak, who resigned Thursday as SAD 27 superintendent, effective at the end of August, to accept the superintendent’s position for RSU 39, covering Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm.
The school board did not change plans to close St. Francis Elementary School. Students will be bused to Fort Kent at the start of this school year.
Residents of St. Francis will go to the polls Aug. 14 to determine if they want to come up with $300,000 on their own to keep the school open.
“The school board accepted the voters’ recommendations to cut $700,000 from the first budget,” Barry Ouellette, school board chairman, said. “It impacted a lot of people, but I believe it was the right thing to do.”
After the district budget hearing, Doak met with the SAD 27 board members and encouraged them to start advertising for his replacement immediately.
“You need someone to keep the momentum in the schools going and to work with the teachers and the leadership team,” he said. “As far as the financial end of things, you have nothing to worry about with [district financial officer] Lucie [Tabor].”
Doak stressed the move had nothing to do with budget efforts in SAD 27.
“At this point and time it is a professional step up in my career,” he said. “It is a bigger district and I am excited about it.”
Doak has been with SAD 27 for 12 years, seven as principal and five as superintendent.
“It has been an outstanding experience working here,” he said.
