Voters in School Administrative District 6 are being asked next week to approve a referendum measure to fully pay for the school budget.
Buxton polls will be open for the single-item referendum question from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26, at the town hall on Portland Road.
On June 14, voters district-wide approved a $35.6 million SAD 6 school budget but turned down a $3.8 million piece in additional local money necessary to fund the total budget. SAD 6 needs the additional local money for the portion of the budget that the state subsidy isn’t covering.
Superintendent Suzanne Lukas said the state is not paying 55 percent of the cost of education plus part of student activities, which includes sports, not covered by the state’s revamped funding formula. The additional local funding that SAD 6 is asking for is not extra above the total budget that voters approved.
Lukas said that the “additional local funds” wording on the ballot is in accordance with state requirements. “Our budget is fully in line with the new model Essential Programs and Services,” she said.
SAD 6 is asking local taxpayers in the district’s five communities for additional local funds of $3,848,583, which is $1 less than the amount on the June ballot. Lukas said the single-item question would not change the total budget figure. “We have an approved budget,” she said.
All five SAD 6 towns approved the total school budget in June but the additional local funds article failed by 51 votes district-wide. Buxton defeated the additional local funds by 25 votes but approved the entire SAD 6 budget figure by 27 votes.
Standish and Frye Island also defeated the additional local funds measure in June. Hollis and Limington passed all the school funding articles but the five towns will have to vote again on the single item.
Under state law, SAD 6 directors had two options. The directors chose to go back to its voters in a referendum, but could have held a district-wide budget meeting, similar to a town meeting in which voters participate.
Buxton Town Clerk John Myers said 429 people went to the polls in June but 474 cast ballots in July of 2002 for a school revote. Myers estimated about 400, which he said is low, would cast ballots in Buxton next week. “That’s the best we can expect,” he said.
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