Milford abruptly canceled its third vote on the school budget that was scheduled to be held at a special town meeting Thursday night after a legal review found the budget warrant “was not in compliance with state law,” according to a post from the town.
The town did not specify what part of the warrant was not in compliance and did not say when the vote will take place.
“A new warrant will be issued and a new Special Town Meeting scheduled so voters may act properly on the school budget,” the town added.
Town officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Milford voters were set to review the proposed $6.2 million budget for the Dr. Lewis S. Libby School, Milford’s K-8 school, for the third time this year. The town is one of several in Maine that has yet to pass a budget for this fiscal year.
Dr. Lewis S. Libby Superintendent Trish Clark said there was no indication as to what part of the warrant was not in compliance with state law and was told to have the school’s lawyers speak to the town’s lawyers to find a solution.
The school vetted its warrants through its law firm, Drummond Woodsum, who said they were appropriate as written, Clark said. The changes to the budget included updates to three of the five articles and notations to the articles that were already passed.
The town indicated in an email at 9:15 a.m. Thursday that if the warrants were not corrected by 10 a.m. that the meeting would be canceled, Clark said.
The town’s select board signed off on the articles at its Sept. 2 meeting when it approved the date for the special town meeting.
A new date for the budget vote cannot be decided until the warrants are changed or deemed to be in compliance with state law.
The Milford school committee will still hold its meeting tonight at 5 p.m. at the Dr. Lewis S. Libby School where the committee will appoint a new board member.
The appointment will fill a vacancy left when a previous member resigned. Morgan Gunnell, the previous member, resigned effective immediately last month. His resignation came days after the Bangor Daily News first reported that Gunnell was convicted of assault in 2015.
