HOULTON, Maine — For the second time in a month, voters in RSU 29 have rejected a proposed budget for the upcoming school year.
At the polls July 15, only 261 voters (5 percent) cast ballots. There are about 5,125 registered voters in the communities of Houlton, Littleton, Monticello and Hammond. The $12.75 million budget failed by a vote of 123 in favor, 138 opposed.
A breakdown by town reveals Hammond was the only community to endorse the spending plan. The breakdown is as follows: Hammond, 16 in favor and one opposed; Littleton, nine in favor and nine opposed; Monticello, 13 in favor and 21 opposed; and Houlton, 85 in favor and 107 opposed.
Superintendent Mike Hammer said Wednesday that he was disappointed by the vote, but does not foresee making any further reductions to the plan.
“I am not going to take any more money out (of the budget),” Hammer said. “In my opinion, we will bring back a budget similar to this one.”
Hammer said he did not expect to have a finance committee meeting to revisit the spending plan and instead will have the entire school board address the budget at their next regular meeting, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 4. At that time, Hammer said he plans to present the same budget the group has already endorsed for them to review. The board could decide to make changes to the budget, if it so chooses, or it could pass it along to voters unchanged, he said.
A district budget meeting, in which residents can lower individual cost centers, but not specific line items, will be held Aug. 14 at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Another referendum will be held Aug. 27 with polls open in each of the four communities.
Board chairman Fred Grant said he too was disappointed by the failed vote.
“Putting a budget together is a long process and we have spent a lot of time with it this year,” Grant said. “We have whittled it down as far as we feel we can go. To have it not pass doesn’t leave us with any other viable options.”
Grant said it was difficult to determine why the vote failed.
“There were only about 200 people in Houlton who turned out to vote, so it’s difficult to say what the reasons are,” he said. “They could feel the budget is too much still. Some may be unhappy that teachers and administrators are paid the way they are. Some people have told me they voted it down because of the closure of Wellington. Others voted it down because they didn’t want the sixth graders moved to Bird Street (Houlton High School).”
Grant added he didn’t feel the voting down of the budget was a fair representation for what the entire community felt, since so few bothered to vote.
RSU 29 will receive $9,240,465 from the state next year, which is an increase of $423,224 over the previous year. The required local share, which is the amount the district must raise to receive those state funds is $3,192,008 (an increase of $84,164).
The district has trimmed its budget so that it is now at what the state says is the level for “Essential Programs and Services (EPS)” and any further cuts to the budget would result in lost revenue from the state.
Grant said any additional cuts to the budget would result in a dollar-for-dollar loss from the state. What that means is the district would have to cut $2 from its budget to save $1 because the state will reduce how much it gives the district if it goes below EPS.
Earlier in June, voters rejected the original $12.9 million spending plan at the polls, 318-450. The board then came up with a plan to trim $150,927 from the overall budget, by eliminating an assistant principal position (which was a new position slated for Houlton Elementary School next year), at a savings of $72,000; eliminating a plan to lease modular classrooms ($48,312 per year); cutting $15,615 from the Houlton Southside School After-School Program; and cutting $15,000 from the heating oil account.
The elimination of the modular classrooms prompted the need to relocate grades in the district. The other option was to move pre-K to Houlton Southside School for one year, with the idea of moving the sixth- and third-grade classes in the 2015-16 school year.
The new fiscal year began July 1 and without a new spending plan in place, the district must operate under last year’s budget until a new one is adopted.
Hammer surmised one of the reasons for the low voter turnout was that many were out of town for summer vacations and was optimistic more individuals would come out for the next vote.
“We’ll push a little bit harder to get more people to come out and vote this next time,” he said. “There are some other things we can do to better get the word out.”
One possibility is to send automated phone calls out to parents through the district’s “First Alert” system. That system is used to notify parents of snow days and other events going on at the school via a pre-recorded message. Hammer said announcements on the radio are another possibility.
There are about 1,300 students in the district. According to the most recent report from the Maine Department of Education, RSU 29’s per pupil cost for education is $8,236. The state average is $10,021.
