FORT KENT, Maine — For the fourth time since June, voters in SAD 27 on Tuesday night passed a proposed 2015-2016 budget and district officials hope it fares better at the polls than the previous three.
It took about 100 voters just over 30 minutes to pass the $10.9 million budget which includes $4.2 million in local tax contributions spread among member towns Fort Kent, St. Francis, St. John Plantation, New Canada, Wallagrass and Eagle Lake.
The budget now moves on to a referendum vote on Nov. 2.
Earlier this month the SAD 27 board of directors made an additional $198,000 in cuts from the budget defeated at a September referendum.
Many of the cuts in the new budget came from staffing and professional development around the district.
“We do need change,” incoming SAD 27 Superintendent Benjamin Siros said Tuesday night. “Unfortunately SAD 27 cannot begin the process of change until the past is behind us. First and foremost, we must have a working budget in place.”
Sirois, who took over as superintendent a week ago, joked, “I’m the one you all say ‘good luck’ to whenever you meet me,” but added, “I am an educator at heart, so every recommendation and decision I make is done based on how it helps influence kids and education.”
Since June, SAD 27 voters have approved three different budgets at three successive town meetings and subsequently turned them down at referendum, most recently a $12.1 million proposal.
The district has operated month to month based on the budget approved at the most recent budget meeting in September and the budget approved Tuesday represents a $507,000, or 4.1 percent, reduction from last year.
To get to the reduced budget, the board has cut a district social worker to save $49,800, made $19,000 in cuts to technology, cut a $20,000 library aide position, and made more than $10,000 in cuts to staff professional development.
Other reductions came from cuts in secretarial and custodial staffing, combining positions, reducing adult education services and less support for a joint SAD 27-University of Maine at Fort Kent program in which high school students attend university classes.
Barry Ouellette, board chairman, said voters need to think of the students and their education when they go to vote on the budget Nov. 2.
“People can always find a reason to vote against a budget,” Ouellette said after the meeting Tuesday. “But this is a good budget.”
