Second referendum on tap in SAD 48 Vote on budget trimmed by $100,000 an alternative to districtwide meeting

NEWPORT – After cutting another $100,000 from the SAD 48 proposed budget Tuesday night, directors opted to send the proposal to a second referendum vote rather than the districtwide meeting originally planned last week.

The referendum will be held Thursday, July 31, in each of the six towns of SAD 48: Corinna, Hartland, Newport, St. Albans, Palmyra and Plymouth.

A districtwide informational meeting will be held at Nokomis Regional High School at 7 p.m. Monday, July 21.

Voters in a June referendum defeated a budget that reflected a 17.8 percent increase in taxation and a 6 percent increase in expenditures by greater than a two-to-one margin.

The emergency meeting Tuesday night reversed the board’s actions taken last week to hold an open format meeting on July 22.

It also reversed its stand to resubmit the original budget to voters and opted to trim an additional $100,000, bringing the budget’s bottom line to $17,028,974.

Although the vote was nearly unanimous, discussion showed that directors favored both methods.

Chairman Ronald Fowle Jr. of St. Albans said several people had told him that they would absolutely not turn out for a districtwide meeting but preferred to vote in their hometowns.

Fowle said people working night shifts and the elderly who cannot get out in the evening would be left out of the process unless it was a referendum vote.

“We had a huge turnout at the first referendum and the $17 million budget was voted down by a 2-to-1 margin,” said Newport director Lynne Cianchette. “We should give those same people the opportunity to vote again.”

Before setting the referendum, directors cut $100,000 in maintenance, labor and equipment. Monday’s cuts also eliminates all district “B” athletic teams, the high school cross-country team, and moves the alternative education program from a leased space to district-owned space.

The cut affects two employees, a part-time janitor and an educational technician. Earlier budget trimming sessions eliminated 16 other positions.

But curriculum administrator Virginia Secor was most concerned about teachers in their first or second year with SAD 48 if the second budget does not pass. “We are rolling the dice with these people,” she warned.

Secor said the district must notify teachers 30 days before the school year if they have a position. If the newly proposed budget does not pass, she fears mass resignations. There could be up to 60 teachers affected, said Secor, particularly in the math, science and foreign language areas.

Also discussed was whether to hold informational meetings in the individual communities, a move supported solely by Braun and budget committee Chairman Robin Duplisea.

“That would be overkill,” said Palmyra director Marilyn Tardy. “We’ve been to the public. They know what we are doing. People have essentially already made up their minds.”

Some of those people belong to a loosely knit taxpayers’ group that has been working for budget reform since May.

Loujean Reheuser presented directors last month with a budget alternative $477,548 lower than what the board proposed. She said that out of 357 line items, she proposed a decrease to 119 accounts, and an increase to seven accounts that would have left all staff in place, resulted in no program cuts and increased the contingency account.

Duplisea dismissed the alternative, however, saying that the figures it was based on were flawed and that she had difficulty understanding it. No other board member commented on the alternative.

Reheuser told the board, “I just don’t know if $100,000 will appease people. This is not just a district problem, it is a state and federal problem.”