WASHBURN, Maine — Voters in SAD 45 weighed in on the proposed 2015-16 budget during a lengthy meeting Thursday, eventually agreeing to cut $60,000 from the proposed $4.37 million spending package.
The session was an extension of a June 18 session where a number of citizens in attendance disagreed with the budget proposal and, as a result, the meeting ran until midnight and had to be adjourned before all articles were discussed.
Citizens voted to cut a great deal of articles during the June 18 meeting, and the school board felt this could put SAD 45 in jeopardy. In an open letter to the communities of Washburn, Wade, Perham, and Crouseville, the board explained that “MSAD 45 will lose federal funding because the reduced budget amount shows no intent to maintain efforts to meet Special Education needs, and therefore disqualifies MSAD 45 from receiving federal subsidy money.”
The lack of funding, they added, makes the district a “high risk for compliance with federal Special Education laws and regulation,” and that, even with this funding cut, they still need to discover an alternative method to pay for the aforementioned service.
In addition, the board believes they may need to consider removing a plethora of extracurricular programs, such as sports, music, and all-day kindergarten to compensate for cuts made during the previous meeting.
“We don’t want to see anything cut,” said Tammi Easler, school board chair, during the June 25 meeting. “If any more drastic changes take place, it will likely harm a number of school programs. However, we plan on working with the community tonight.”
Superintendent Ed Buckley called the meeting to order and Frank Bemis, an attorney from Presque-Isle, was elected to moderate.
The first order of business was to hold an additional vote on Article XV. Initially, the objective of this article was to raise and appropriate $907,894 in additional local funds. However, the citizens voted June 18 to cut this figure down to $704,122 during the June 18 meeting. However, residents voted 116-46 via secret ballot keep the cuts.
The board then made a motion to revisit Article III, which requests $983,772 for Special Education programs. The article previously passed, but with a $133,000 cut to the program.
Michael Farley, a Washburn citizen, was skeptical of the motion to revisit this article. “Have you actually done any brainstorming for a good alternative,” Farley asked the board, “or have you just been focusing all your time on writing that letter to the town?”
“Taxpayers are going to be reimbursed down the road,” responded board member Kellie Miller. “If we vote lower than the MOE (Maintenance of Effort), we lose $95,727 from our budget. No matter how taxpayers vote, we are still legally required to give assistance. The federal government tells us we have to provide service regardless. So if the cuts stay, we still have to pull from other areas, including local taxes, to compensate.”
Citizens voted by a show of hands, and the majority chose to retain the initial proposal of $983,772.
School board chair Tammi Easler then made a motion to revisit Article XV and consider voting to keep the initial proposal of $907,894. This motion was seconded by another member of the board.
Troy Heald, a citizen in the audience, did not agree with this motion.
“It seems to me that if this motion to raise the budget was made and seconded exclusively by two people on the school board, it shows that you don’t care about us townspeople at all, only your own interests,” said Heald.
His statement provoked an eruption of applause from the dissenting portion of the audience.
Citizens then voted, via secret ballot, on keeping the original Article XV proposal of $907,894 to “pay for basic educational services not adequately recognized by the Essential Programs and Services funding formulas and ratios.” The article passed with a vote of 80-66.
Citizens then motioned to hold another vote on articles that were cut during the previous meeting.
• Article VI, which allows MSAD 45 to expend $235,431 for student and staff support, passed as written.
• Article VII, which allows the school to expend $163,935 for system administration, passed as written.
• Article VIII, which authorizes Washburn school to expend $284,476 for school administration, also passed without cuts.
Resident Fred Thomas made a motion to cut the local option portion of the budget from $117,465 down to $57,465. The motion passed, but some questions were raised regarding the legality of passing a motion unrelated to the articles outlined in the meeting’s agenda.
Board member Janet Grieco read a statute delineating the illegality of voting on a topic unrelated to the agenda’s written articles.
Remaining questions surrounding Thomas’ motion elicited skepticism in some community members, despite Superintendent Buckley’s assertion it was permitted. This prompted the superintendent to call his lawyer, who reaffirmed that the motion was in fact legal.
The board then motioned to change the Article XV proposal of $907,894 to $847,894. The Superintendent informed the public that this will compensate for the $60,000 cut to the local option.
Voters approved the $847,894 figure by a vote of 87-13.
The community then voted on Article XVI, which authorizes the Board of Directors to expend $4,378,102 for the upcoming fiscal year.
A motion was made to reduce the figure to $4,318,101.80 as a result of the $60,000 cut. The community voted, and Article XVI passed with this alteration in place.
Article XVII, which gives the school board authorization to “expend other such sums as may be received from federal or state grants or programs or other sources during the fiscal year for school purposes,” passed by a show of hands.
The moderator asked if there were any motions to reconsider previous articles in the agenda. No motions were made, and the meeting was adjourned at 11:15 p.m.
