FORT KENT, Maine — Residents passed a reduced MSAD 27 budget during a Thursday public hearing at the Fort Kent Community High School gym. Now, the budget is headed to referendum vote on Thursday, Oct. 16 in each of the district’s communities.
School officials approved the third budget earlier this month. It is $93,911 lower than the budget that residents approved last year and $86,905 lower than the budget that voters narrowly rejected last month.
The first budget would have brought a $429,404 increase across the district’s towns. In response to this, officials in both Fort Kent and Wallagrass approved advisory resolutions informing residents that they were opposed to the first budget.
After voters rejected both the first and second MSAD 27 budgets, the town had to set its annual mill rate because it was on a timeline and could not wait any longer. The new mill rate is 23.85, which represents a 0.9 mill increase over last year. This mill rate assumes the total amount of the second school budget. The difference between the second and third budget, roughly $87,000, will be used to offset next year’s taxes.
The meeting was brief, lasting less than half an hour. Slightly more than 40 people attended the 6 p.m. hearing and passed nearly all items on the agenda without questions or comments.
One resident raised concerns about the district’s “pay to play” model for school sports, which will raise revenue by charging student athletes $25 per sport with a cap of $50 per school year. He said that sports were an important part of his high school career, and that families are already paying a lot for gas and other expenses like food associated with foods. He said he was strongly opposed to the school’s decision to charge for sports, and that it was not worth the money made in additional revenues.
Superintendent Ben Sirois said this decision came about to handle rising costs across the board, and that “pay to play” is happening in schools across the state currently.
“The intent is not to hurt a family that can’t afford it,” Sirois said. “We have many community members and we have the booster club that are guaranteed to pay for the athletes that cannot make that $25 payment for the season.”
Residents voted by secret ballot on the thirteenth article, which asked voters to raise $2.5 million beyond the state portion of the budget to cover additional costs such as special education, substitute teachers, supplies, system administration support, and other expenses. Forty voted in favor of this while two were opposed.
The referendum will be held on Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Fort Kent Town Office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the community centers in New Canada, St. Francis, and St. John Plantation from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and at the Wallagrass Community Center from noon to 6 p.m.
