Over 1,000 people voted in the SAD 61 school budget referendum last Tuesday ultimately defeating most of its articles in the proposed budget. The school board is now adjusting its budget for another public vote June 16.

Casco was the only town from the district to locally support all of the articles, with Naples passing five of the 15 and Sebago rejecting every article of the budget. In the end, all but four of the 15 articles failed to pass. School administrators and directors of the school committee are now reconsidering the failed articles and trying to find ways to trim the budget.

“The administrators of each of the school departments went through their budgets to see what cuts they could make that would least impact students,” said Janice Barter, chairwoman of the SAD 61 board of directors. “They then presented their reductions to the school board on Monday night.”

On Monday night, the board of directors met with school administrators to discuss the cuts mandated by public dissention. According to Barter, the group cut $892,225 from the budget that night in hopes to appease the voting public.

$243,500 of that sum came from a scale-back in teaching positions. Vacancies left by retiring teachers at the Songo Locks Elementary School, Stevens Brook in Bridgton, the Sebago Elementary School and the Lakes Region Middle School will not be filled next year as a result. Class sizes will be a result of the reduction in the number of teachers.

$91,000 will be cut from secondary education resulting in a loss of some extracurricular activities next fall. There will be no freshman football or basketball at the high school and the fall theater performance will also not be funded.

$156,700 has been cut in transportation costs. This will restrict the late bus to run only two days during the week, eliminate transportation for daycare and instate a “one pick-up, one drop-off” policy. This policy means that students who get on a bus in the morning must ride the same bus home that afternoon, says Barter. The start of the school day will be 15 minutes later as a result.

About $100,000 in proposed cuts has been made to special education, eliminating two teaching positions and reducing the number of hours that specialists will be available to help the students. $268,600 in cuts were also made to the maintenance budget.

None of these cuts however are permanent as of yet. At least not until the public approves each of the revised articles. The school board of directors will present the modified SAD 61 budget to the public at a town meeting to be held at the Lake Region High School on Thursday, June 16 from 7 to 10 p.m. The board will then go through each article, pointing out the cuts made, and asking the public present to vote for or against the item. At this time, the public and the board may also make motions to amend the proposed cuts. If all goes well, the board hopes to have a final SAD 61 budget ready by the start of the fiscal year.

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