Brunswick voters on Tuesday will decide whether to approve the $52.9 million school budget during a referendum election. Voting will be held at Brunswick Junior High School from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
School officials said this year’s budget process was the most difficult in years, as they dealt with pressures from inflation, rising teacher salaries and an expected enrollment increase. The school board cut more than $1 million from the original budget proposal to lessen the tax impact.
If approved, the school budget would raise property taxes 4.8%. Property owners would see a 7.4% tax increase overall — the largest in years — with the impacts from the municipal budget (2.3%) and county budget (0.3%) factored in. That means for a house assessed at $300,000, property taxes would increase about $480.
The school budget represents a 9.2% increase in spending over the current fiscal year. It includes funds for an additional teacher, instructional strategist and two educational technicians for about 100 new multilingual students from asylum-seeking families expected to enroll in the fall. A total of $838,500 was allocated for the new multilingual students. Teacher salaries rose by $1.7 million, and the special education budget increased by $900,333.
Voting on Tuesday was originally slated to be held at the recreation center, as the Town Council last year voted to move the polls there, but Secretary of State Shenna Bellows denied the move, saying the junior high is centrally located and moving it would disenfranchise low-income people, unhoused individuals and students.
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