FORT KENT, Maine — The rejection Thursday of the proposed district budge t for the second time in as many months could be the beginning of the end for SAD 27, according to district officials.
“I’ve been watching this and maybe SAD 27 is coming to an end,” Tim Doak, district superintendent said during an early morning school board meeting Friday. “It’s sad but like it or not, this is where things could be.”
SAD 27 is made up of Fort Kent, Wallagrass, New Canada, Eagle Lake, St. Francis and St. John Plantation.
At Thursday’s budget referendum all member communities but Fort Kent and New Canada approved the $11.8 million proposal, but not with enough votes for overall passage of the budget which was defeated 377 to 319 and would have had no impact on property taxes.
In June, voters turned down at referendum a $12.8 million proposed budget that would have triggered a 20 percent property tax increase.
Both budgets passed at the district budget meetings.
On Friday, board members could pinpoint no one reason for the budget’s defeat, though speculated low turnout at the polls could have been a factor.
“Fifty-eight votes, that is what we missed it by,” Doak, who is leaving SAD 27 next month to become superintendent in RSU 39, said. “It was very close but I don’t think we will solve this issue in the next day or weeks [and] right now we need to focus on school starting up.”
Classes begin Aug. 18 in SAD 27.
“Compared to the first vote, this is a small number of people that went out to vote,” John Martin, board member and Eagle Lake representative to the Maine legislature, said. “They don’t care.”
Doak said he understood voters nixing a budget that included a 20 percent property tax increase for education, but was unsure why they would turn down a budget with zero impact on their taxes.
“It could be for a multitude of reasons,” he said. “That is the danger of this process. We don’t really know.”
Doak said voters could have been protesting lack of teacher pay increases, perceived bloated administrative salaries of the board’s decision to reverse itself and leave two of the outlying elementary schools intact for at least another year.
“We can’t read minds,” Keith Jandreau, school board member, said.
“Voters want to micromanage and they all think they know what is going on,” Martin said. “I am convinced this SAD is short-lived and each town should go back to having its own school board with its own elementary school [because] I don’t ever see anything happening to bring these towns together.”
Martin speculated Eagle Lake would be the next town to officially withdraw from SAD 27, following Winterville which pulled out last year, motivated by the fact it contributes 18 percent of the overall district budget, but has only 8 percent of the students.
“In my opinion, the future of SAD 27 is pretty dismal,” he said.
Rather than dissolve the district, board member Sofia Burden said it made sense to consolidate resources into a central elementary school and high school for all students.
“How do we handle this?” she said. “What if rather than tearing things apart, we all sit down and do things amicably, knowing nothing we do will make everyone happy.”
Moving forward and trying to craft a budget Doak suggested involving community members and leaders for guidance and stress the importance of people voting.
“We need to show people we can make a few more cuts,” board member Kelly O’Leary said. “And we need to get the votes out.”
SAD 27 administration and the board worked hard on the recently proposed budget, Doak said, but said it is time to look for more specific guidance from the communities.
“I think the no vote in June was very understandable,” he said. “This time, I think there is a hodgepodge of reasons and when you get into a mess like this, it can go on and on and on.”
Until a new budget is ultimately approved by the voters, SAD 27 will operate month-to-month on the budget approved at the July 23 district budget meeting.
