NEWPORT, Maine — Voters in RSU 19’s eight member towns again defeated a proposed budget for the current school year during a districtwide referendum on Tuesday.
After the ballots in each of the member towns were counted, the final tally stood at 678 in favor and 993 opposed, Superintendent Mike Hammer said after the polls closed Tuesday night.
Hammer called the outcome “disappointing.”
RSU 19 member towns are Newport, Corinna, Dixmont, Etna, Hartland, Palmyra, Plymouth and St. Albans.
The breakdown by town is as follows: Palmyra — 89 yes, 124 no; Hartland — 60 yes, 127 no; Corinna — 134 yes, 129 no; Etna — 43 yes, 64 no; Dixmont — 70 yes, 34 no; St. Albans — 87 yes, 163 no; Newport — 149 yes, 231 no; and Plymouth — 46 yes, 121 no.
The proposed $23.9 million budget, which was approved during a district budget meeting on Aug. 25, was the second sent on to a budget validation vote so far this year.
The first version, which called for a $24 million spending plan, failed in a 1,158 to 621 vote during a budget validation referendum on June 14.
Hammer said earlier that the $23,959,261 budget turned down on Tuesday would have kept existing programs intact but would have resulted in the elimination of five full-time teaching jobs, an occupational therapist, a special education teacher and half of an assistant special director post, a part-time elementary school principal position and some stipend positions.
In addition, the high school and middle school would have shared a nurse, he said.
The $24,297,761 budget plan that was shot down by voters in June reflected an increase of $934,529 from last year. Had it passed, the local share for member towns would have increased by about 16 percent, which a majority of voters apparently found unpalatable.
While the most recent version of the budget was up 2.55 percent from last year, the local share for member towns was projected to drop from the 16 percent increase to the 12 percent range for most member towns, according to Hammer, who assumed the superintendent post on July 1.
The district has been grappling with financial problems for years.
Earlier in the fiscal year, the district considered furlough days in an effort to make up for a $295,000 revenue shortfall, which forced the district to reduce overtime and fall behind on some bills.
In February, the Maine Education Association Benefits Trust stepped in after budget struggles forced the district to leave its health insurance premiums unpaid for several months.
The next month, however, district voters accepted $69 million in state funding to overhaul the district’s aging school buildings.
The budget rejected by RSU 19 voters on Tuesday is not the first to suffer that fate.
In 2013, it took two referendum attempts to get a budget passed. A $2.8 million stabilization loan failed twice at the polls before being approved in March of that year.