FORT KENT, Maine — After school officials eliminated six positions and cut nearly half a million in expenses, MSAD 27 voters still narrowly rejected the school budget during a second referendum vote on Tuesday.
Across all MSAD 27 communities, 226 opposed the budget while 215 supported it. In Fort Kent, 174 residents voted against the second budget while 166 voted in favor. In Wallagrass, 34 voted against the budget while 18 supported it. In New Canada, 10 voted against the budget while seven supported it.
Voters in St. Francis and St. John Plantation supported the budget. Thirteen in St. Francis voted yes and six voted no, and 11 in St. John Plantation voted yes while two voted against the budget.
Another nearby school district in Madawaska also held a second school budget proposal on Tuesday, but voters there approved the latest spending plan after initially rejecting the first.
The budget MSAD 27 originally proposed would have increased the previously approved annual budget by $429,404.
Fort Kent and Wallagrass would have seen a respective 8.2 percent and 9.4 percent increase from that first budget proposal. In response to this, officials from both communities issued advisory resolutions opposing the first budget. In both communities, officials cited aging residents on fixed incomes who may not be able to afford the rising costs.
In June, MSAD 27 voters rejected the first budget proposal.
It was among several school budgets in the state that voters rejected. In Aroostook County alone, school budgets in the Madawaska school department, RSU 39 and MSAD 70 were also rejected earlier this year.
Throughout the state, at least 16 school budgets were rejected by voters in June. By August, at least a dozen school districts in Maine still did not have budgets.
After the first school budget was rejected in the Fort Kent area, school officials then worked on a second budget proposal with $436,140 in cuts, which would have brought it slightly lower than the previous year’s budget. In addition to removing six positions, the budget also would have made reductions to food service equipment and building supplies.
To create more revenues to offset expenses, both MSAD 27 and the nearby Madawaska school department have also decided to start charging student athletes to play sports.
Last month, about 50 people within the MSAD 27 district attended a budget hearing at the Fort Kent High School and approved each item on the budget. The meeting was brief, with just a few questions from the audience.
