FORT KENT, Maine — Lacking a superintendent and in need of a budget, the local school board Monday night decided to present the same proposal turned down by voters last month.
During the budget discussion, officials from the SAD 27 member communities of Eagle Lake and Wallagrass also announced that they have begun the formal process of withdrawing from the school district.
Residents of the SAD 27 member communities will have their next chance to question the $12 million 2015-2016 budget at a Sept. 9 budget meeting. If approved at that meeting, the budget moves on to referendum Sept. 15.
This will be SAD 27’s third attempt to get a working budget past voters after failing with an estimated $12.8 million proposed budget in June and again with the second budget proposal that included more than $700,000 in additional cuts.
To get to those cuts, the board earlier this summer voted to close the elementary school in St. Francis and bus the remaining 24 prekindergarten through grade five students to the Fort Kent Elementary School starting this school year.
At Monday’s meeting, the board also began discussions on the future of the elementary schools in Eagle Lake and Wallagrass, saying closing those two schools could be an option for saving money.
That’s when officials from both those communities told board members they had started the withdrawal process, following Winterville, which withdrew a year ago.
Eagle Lake is scheduled to have its first public hearing on withdrawal Sept. 2, according to board member John Martin.
On Monday, district financial officer Lucie Tabor recommended moving forward with the unchanged $12 million budget to get the district through this school year.
“There are too many unknowns right now to change this budget,” she said. “We are at the point we need a school budget.”
In July, district Superintendent Tim Doak resigned to take over as superintendent for RSU 39, covering Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm. Tabor said Monday it would be difficult to craft a new budget while at the same time searching for a new superintendent.
Classes started last week in SAD 27, which is composed of Fort Kent, St. Francis, St. John Plantation, Wallagrass, Eagle Lake and New Canada.
Both Tabor and SAD 27 Board Chairman Barry Ouellette said they understood why voters turned down the initial $12.8 million budget proposal, which would have meant a 20 percent property tax increase districtwide.
“We got the message,” Ouellette said Monday. “But this [current] budget proposal represents a zero percent tax increase.”
He and Tabor believe the second budget proposal failed because not enough people voted.
“In talking to people around town, I had the sense they thought it was a shoo-in, so they did not vote,” Tabor said. “We have to educate people on the budget and encourage them to vote.”
