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BY MATTHEW STONE
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel Wednesday, September 30, 2009

WHITEFIELD -- Budget writers in the Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit will go back to the drawing board -- for a fourth time.

Residents of the 2,100-student district's eight towns rejected a $26.5 million budget proposal for the 2009-10 academic year in voting Tuesday. It's the third proposed budget voters have rejected since June.

Unofficial results show a closer tally than previous budget votes. But the 599 votes in favor of the spending plan couldn't match the 810 opposed to it. Approximately 13 percent of registered voters turned out.

The Sheepscot Valley district serves students from Alna, Chelsea, Palermo, Somerville, Westport Island, Whitefield, Windsor and Wiscasset.

The eight towns came together in July as a single district under Maine's school district consolidation mandate. This school year marks the first in which the towns' schools have operated under a single budget.

"This really means to me that, I think, we're going to have to start cutting some programs," Hilary Holm, a school board member from Whitefield, said of the budget rejection. "And we really tried hard not to do that, to give the RSU a year on the ground without doing that."

The $26.5 million budget proposal voters weighed in on Tuesday had shrunken twice since school board members proposed their first budget in June.

The school board initially put a $27.7 million budget on the June ballot, but voters at a town meeting stripped $1.8 million from the proposal. Days later, at the polls, Sheepscot Valley residents turned down the $25.9 million spending plan, 385-1,157.

School board members came back in July with a $26.6 million funding plan for the eight towns' schools. But it still didn't pass muster, with a 431-591 tally.

Board members had attempted to soften the property tax blow by applying left-over funds from the 2008-09 school year to the budget proposal. Funds from the federal economic stimulus package also drew down the amount local taxpayers needed to contribute.

In the run-up to Tuesday's vote, school officials finished hiring staff members as the academic year began and realized $85,000 in savings from hiring employees at lower salaries. The school board also decided to use $30,000 of stimulus money -- rather than local taxpayer funds -- to cover new text book purchases.

In addition, the school board learned the district would receive $225,000 more than anticipated from the federal Medicaid program, revenue that would have decreased the eight towns' aggregate property tax bill.

The budget includes $11.5 million in aid from the state, $1.4 million less than the eight towns received a year earlier, before they became a regional school unit.

"We didn't cut it that much" between votes, Holm said. "We did try to reduce the effect on the towns, but obviously, according to this vote, it's not enough."

Residents in four Sheepscot Valley towns -- Chelsea, Palermo, Whitefield and Windsor -- voted in favor of the spending plan on Tuesday. That compares to none of the eight towns backing the budget in June.

School board members meet Thursday to set the timeline for a new budget approval process, which includes a town-meeting style gathering and the referendum. Sheepscot Superintendent Greg Potter said he'd recommend Nov. 3 -- when voters will visit the polls to weigh in on seven ballot questions -- as the next referendum date.

Holm said board members estimate each budget go-around costs Sheepscot Valley schools $20,000.

Board members on Thursday will also determine how they might alter their budget proposal for a fourth round of voting. Holm said board members might hold sessions in each Sheepscot town to collect input and send out questionnaires to voters.

"There's no point in trying to do it in a vacuum," she said.

In interviews, voters who visited the polls in Whitefield and Windsor on Tuesday afternoon said they had voted for the budget's passage, in contrast to most Sheepscot voters.

"It's time to wrap this thing up," said Mary Kaminsky after she voted in Whitefield.

"They don't seem to have anything really excess," Josh Parker said of the budget after casting his vote at Windsor Town Hall.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com

Sheepscot Valley RSU

Budget vote results

Alna: 31 yes, 116 no

Chelsea: 85 yes, 57 no

Palermo: 73 yes, 64 no

Somerville: 10 yes, 58 no

Westport: 48 yes, 93 no

Whitefield: 98 yes, 72 no

Windsor: 116 yes, 90 no

Wiscasset: 138 yes, 260 no

Source: Town clerks

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