Four weeks into the school year and three months since it first came before voters, the Caribou-based RSU 39 finally passed a budget Tuesday in a third validation referendum.
Residents in Caribou, who account for nearly 97% of the district’s population, voted 416-389 in favor of the $24.5 million budget, which despite being a nearly $1 million increase over the previous year, is set to decrease taxes.
In Stockholm, where residents voted in favor of the budget in the two previous referendums, the vote was 22-3.
It’s the third year in a row the district’s budget has increased by more than $950,000 as it deals with rising education costs that are gripping schools throughout Maine. But unlike previous years, where taxpayers were forced to shoulder most of that burden, a $1 million state subsidy increase put the increased local ask below $300,000 heading into the first referendum in June.
Voters convincingly rejected that budget, as rhetoric against rising taxes surged online and at meetings. They shot down a second budget with a minor decrease in July.
The district took its time crafting a new budget before returning to the polls. “We don’t want to come back here again,” school board member Jan Tompkins said during an August budget workshop.
When it did, the budget presented included nearly $500,000 in cuts, including eliminating three non-teacher positions, reducing the working days of two other staff members and deferring the hiring of an innovation teacher and a curriculum coordinator.
Residents voted to add $135,000 back into the budget during an Aug. 20 meeting with the intention of allowing the district to hire the innovation teacher and return a nurse to full time work from a three-day-per-week schedule.
But, as school board members remarked at the time, money added back into the budget during a public budget meeting cannot be earmarked for a specific purpose. Residents voted the previous year to add $90,000 into the budget to hire a middle school teacher. That money was never spent. It carried over into the district’s fund balance and helped offset this year’s budget increase.
In total, the local ask of the budget passed Tuesday is $89,074 lower than the previous year.
