SAD 53 towns pass all budget questions

PITTSFIELD – Voters in the three SAD 53 towns – Burnham, Detroit and Pittsfield – passed all five ballot questions Tuesday regarding the proposed $9.2 million school budget.

It is the first time in recent memory that all budget questions were passed in all three towns.

The board of directors will meet at 6:30 p.m. today at the Warsaw Middle School library to ratify the vote.

The budget represents a 2 percent increase over last year’s, and the school assessment in Detroit will actually decrease due to valuation shifts. Pittsfield and Burnham’s shares of the budget will increase slightly.

The margin was 2-to-1 across the board, with 76 people voting in Burnham, 59 voting in Detroit, and 337 voting in Pittsfield.

Throughout the budget process, the proposal had garnered little public interest with only two Pittsfield residents attending the public hearing on the final proposal.

Also on the agenda for tonight’s directors’ meeting are elimination of a position, resignation acceptances and an update on a recent consent agreement with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for incorrectly disposing of outdated chemistry-class chemicals at the Pittsfield transfer station.