EAST MACHIAS — Proponents of a compromise version of the SAD 77 education budget worked feverishly during the weekend to drum up support for restoring about half of the $240,320 cut from the 1992-93 budget by district voters on June 16.

A special meeting to reconsider the budget will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, in the Washington Academy gymnasium in East Machias. SAD 77 includes the towns of Cutler, East Machias, Machiasport and Whiting.

It will mark the third time in five weeks that district residents have been called to act on the education spending package for the fiscal year which began July 1.

Nearly 400 residents attended the June 16 meeting at Elm Street School in East Machias, at which $240,320 was voted out of the budget. The meeting was suspended after the vote to allow the SAD 77 budget committee time to find the cuts.

The meeting reconvened on June 25 with more than 500 residents in attendance. The cut was upheld when residents voted 289-190 against reconsidering the issue.

The cut, if allowed to stand, will come at the expense of six teaching positions, elimination of all art, music, sports and guidance programs and reduction or elimination of new textbooks, equipment, supplies, maintenance and custodial services.

A group of parents concerned about the cuts and their impact on their children’s education, presented SAD 77 directors with a petition on July 7, asking that a compromise version of the budget be considered.

“The board had no choice but to set a time and date for such a meeting,” SAD 77 Superintendent Betty Jordan explained in a flier circulated during the weekend. “There is much confusion and lack of information … being circulated in the district,” said Jordan. According to school officials, district residents opposed to restoring the budget have distorted the issue.

The proposed compromise version of the budget calls for a $128,690 reduction instead of the $240,320 voted in June. Returning $111,630 to the budget would spare the district three classroom teaching positions and would reinstate art, music, sports and guidance programs. It also would allow for academic field trips and the purchase of new textbooks. The remaining cuts would stand.

Stillman Fitzhenry of Cutler, a leader in the movement to reduce the district’s budget, argued last week that passage of the original funding package would result in a “huge budget increase.” Jordan and other school officials disagree.

According to figures provided by Jordan, the proposed compromise budget — totaling $3,883,370 — represents a four-year increase in the overall budget totaling $74,716 since 1989, when a $3,808,654 budget was passed. Put another way, the gross budget for SAD 77 has risen only 1.96 percent since 1989, Jordan said.

Compared to last year’s budget, the proposed compromise budget reflects a tiny percent increase. As Michael Hinerman of Machiasport pointed out Sunday, “That hardly constitutes a `huge’ increase by anybody’s standards.”

School officials argue that local property tax bills would be only minimally affected by acceptance of the compromise school budget.

A property owner who paid a $400 tax bill in 1991 would see his bill rise to $428. A property owner who paid $1,000 in property taxes last year, would pay an additional $69.10 for education in 1992-93. Any tax bill increases above those amounts would represent budget hikes in the municipal, not the education, portion of the budget.

According to Jordan, the fault lies in Augusta, not with the district.

“The main problems,” said Jordan, “are with the state’s evaluation process and with the state not living up to its promise in subsidy delivery.” The state failed to deliver $875,123 in promised education subsidies to SAD 77 during the same four-year period the district limited its budget increase to $74,716.

Cutting an additional $240,320 at the local level will result in additional loss of state subsidy beginning in two years. According to Hinerman, each 1 percent of state subsidy given up by the district will require a 3 percent increase in locally raised funds to maintain the budget at its present level.

To restart a program which has been cut — such as guidance counseling — local taxpayers are required to fund 100 percent of the program for two years before the district can again receive state subsidies to support the program.

Those opposed to reconsidering the budget have urged district residents to boycott the July 22 meeting. According to law, the meeting can only proceed if the same number of voters attend the reconsideration meeting as did the original meeting in June. Supporters of the effort to pass a compromise are hopeful that more parents will attend.