PITTSFIELD – When voters defeated one of the seven questions on Tuesday’s school budget referendum, they may not have understood exactly what the effect would be, SAD 53 directors said Thursday.

Without the $1.4 million additional option funds, Superintendent Michael Gallagher said “massive numbers of teachers and programs would be eliminated. I hate to use the word ‘massive,’ but that is the reality of the situation.”

The effect would so devastate the district that the school board has opted to go back to the voters for a second vote.

Gallagher pointed out that the local options funds have decreased each year for the past three years. “We have done a wonderful job of preparing a careful, fiscally conservative budget each year.”

In 2004, voters approved more than $1.8 million in additional funds, yet this week they defeated the $1.4 million request by a slim margin of 12 votes.

These funds pay for athletics, substitute teachers, debt service, special education transportation, tuition, smaller class sizes, and a myriad of enrichment programs, Gallagher explained.

School board members said they were mystified as to why voters turned down the funding yet passed the bottom line of the $7.8 million budget.

The board set a districtwide budget vote for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29, at Warsaw Middle School. One of the reasons for an open meeting, they explained, was that two-way conversations could be held about the budget and misperceptions cleared up.

Gallagher explained that the additional option funds are not extra monies beyond what the district needs to operate. “These funds balance the budget,” he said. The option fund amount cannot be included in the main funding amount requested of taxpayers because the state dictates how much that will be, based on a complicated funding formula.

In other business, the board hired Sandford “Sandy” Nevens, currently the principal of Camden-Rockport Middle School, as the new principal at Warsaw Middle School. In his resume, Nevens wrote, “I envision my school becoming a middle school with increased team strengths … with more community involvement in the school and our students more involved in the community; with curriculum that is relevant, exploratory, and integrative.”

The board also accepted the resignation of Warsaw teacher Jason Tardy, who is joining SAD 48 as athletic director and dean of students. They hired Angela Fiandaca for a guidance position at Warsaw for one year while Anna Peterson is on sabbatical.