3 rejected budget items sent to SAD 48 panel

NEWPORT – The SAD 48 board of directors Tuesday took action on the latest of three referendum budget votes by the residents of the six-town district, accepting three articles that passed and referring three that were rejected to the budget committee.

The budget committee will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, to determine how to proceed. If they agree to go to a fourth referendum involving the six towns, their recommendation will come back to the full board in early October, which gives the district enough time to place the questions on the Nov. 4 ballot, Superintendent William Braun said Wednesday.

In voting last week, district residents approved the local share of the budget, debt service commitments and the acceptance of grants and other state and federal aid. But they overwhelmingly rejected additional local funds, the bottom line of the budget and adult education. The budget as presented was $16.8 million, trimmed back twice after voters defeated all six funding questions three times previously.

Braun said the rest of the meeting was devoted to regular housekeeping details such as making appointments, accepting resignations and discussing the opening of school.

“On the first day of school, our attendance districtwide was up,” he said, “but now we are down by 38 kids.” The difference stems from students originally enrolled who had transferred to other schools and whose paperwork had not yet been processed.

He said class sizes range from 17 in a Palmyra third grade to 27 in an eighth-grade class at Sebasticook Valley Middle School. Although the needs of that large class are currently being met, Braun said, it will affect Nokomis Regional High School next year.

“I have 206 in the current freshman class, and next year is projected at 220,” he said. “We are concerned and will obviously be tracking this.”

The board meeting ended on a poignant note, reported Braun, when he passed out turtle pins that are being used as a symbol of the National Jobs for Graduates program.

The late Ray Dionne, a teacher at Nokomis for years, kept turtles in his classroom and used them to teach his students.

“A turtle has to stick its head out in order to move forward,” said Braun. “Ray spoke at the national convention of JG in the summer of 2000 – the only teacher to ever do so – and related his ‘turtle’ philosophy of motivating students,” said Braun. “Since then, they have accepted the turtle as a symbol of what they believe in.”