FORT KENT, Maine — For the third time, residents in the six member towns of the local school system have defeated the proposed budget in a referendum vote.
The latest $12.1 million budget proposal for School Administrative District 27, which called for a zero-percent increase in local taxes, was defeated at the polls Tuesday by a total vote of 839 to 681. The majority of voters in Fort Kent, St. Francis, St. John Plantation and New Canada cast ballots against the proposal, while a majority in Eagle Lake and Wallagrass supported the measure.
The school board prepared the latest budget proposal following the defeat at referendum in June of a $12.8 million budget request that called for a 1.94 mill rate increase in property taxes. The board then presented a second budget in July that included more than $700,000 in additional cuts after electing to close the elementary school in St. Francis. That too was defeated at referendum.
School board officials and administrators resubmitted that same proposal, however, indicating they felt that not enough residents had voted in the second referendum because they thought the budget would pass without a problem.
“In talking to people around town, I had the sense they thought it was a shoo-in, so they did not vote,” Lucie Tabor, the district financial officer, said in August. “We have to educate people on the budget and encourage them to vote.”
Throughout the summer, the issue has divided residents of the district communities, with heated exchanges taking place via social media and flyers being distributed on car windshields.
Because of that divisiveness, many voters were reluctant to share their opinions about the budget on Tuesday, citing reasons such as “we don’t need any more enemies,” and “it’s a contentious issue.”
One male voter from Fort Kent, who chose to remain anonymous, said he was insulted that the school board returned the already failed $12.1 million budget to voters after it failed at the July referendum.
“A lot of people are upset because they threw the same dollar figure at the voters,” he said. “They’re basically saying, ‘They weren’t bright enough to approve it the first time, let’s try it again.’”
Former Wallagrass Elementary School educator Laurie Lozier, owner of Lake Road Grocery in Wallagrass, owns properties in the district towns of Eagle Lake, New Canada and St. Francis. She said she was in favor of the budget.
“I am supporting this budget because I feel cuts have been made and we need to support educating our children,” she said. “My concern is that if the budget doesn’t pass, the cuts they make will impact students beyond what is reasonable. It’s not a matter of the taxes, it’s a matter of educating the kids.”
In addition to voting on the budget proposal, residents in Eagle Lake also cast ballots on an article to authorize the town to spend $25,000 to support costs associated with beginning the process of withdrawal from the district. The article passed 183-117.
Eagle Lake Elementary School is one of two outlying schools in the district, which many argue should be closed, with students sent to Fort Kent Elementary School in order to save money.
Voters in Wallagrass, which is home to the other remaining outlying school in the district, Wallagrass Elementary School, will vote on a similar article on Tuesday, Sept.22.
The SAD 27 school board was scheduled to meet Wednesday to review the outcome of the referendum and begin discussions on how to proceed.