SAD 67 towns pass $10.6M school budget

Unusually low voter turnouts Tuesday did not prevent SAD 67 voters from approving by a slim but healthy margin a $10.6 million school budget slightly larger than the budget expiring June 30.

The 62 Chester voters voted down all but two of the 16 ballot questions – by margins of 1 to 21 votes – but their dissent likely won’t be strong enough to overcome the positive votes for the budget cast by the larger pools of voters in Lincoln and Mattawamkeag, officials said.

The budget passed by 10 to 125 votes per question among 595 Lincoln voters, while Mattawamkeag’s 92 voters passed all of the questions by roughly 2-to-1, town clerks said.

To SAD 67 Chairman Rebecca Hanscom, the vote is a vindication of board efforts to be responsive to student needs while balancing taxpayer concerns. She saw in it less controversy than the 2005-06 budget, which required four votes to pass at $10.5 million.

“This budget is a reflection of all of the stakeholders involved,” Hanscom said Tuesday night. “It is a compromise with what we can afford and what we would like.”

Directors pared many items from the 2006-07 budget they would have liked to see funded. Those included new football goal posts, baritone saxophones, timpani, acoustical shells, tennis court resurfacing and wrestling mat replacement and fewer new desks, school books, office supplies, periodicals and uniforms.

“I would hope that we would have learned from last year to be more public-oriented and responsive,” Hanscom said.

About 86 percent of the new budget is fixed costs mandated by contracts, rising costs and state regulations, board members have said. Of the local assessments to each town, only Mattawamkeag’s increases, and that slightly.

At Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln, some voters complained about rising school costs, but most seemed resigned to the idea that, with vast increases occurring in gasoline and heating oil costs, the school system’s budget would continue to increase.

“I’m not happy with things increasing, but I understand with the cost of things going up, school costs are going to go up, too,” said Douglas Shorey of Lincoln.

Paul Kelly of Lincoln voted for the budget happily, he said.

“I think you have to do everything you can to support education,” Kelly said. “I think they [educators and school officials] are doing a fine job and I support them 100 percent.”

The voter turnout was seen as low even for an off year. In Mattawamkeag, 600 voters were eligible to vote; in Lincoln, about 3,300.

The vote will be verified today or Thursday by the SAD 67 board of directors, Lincoln Town Clerk Lisa Goodwin said.