LISBON

School committee members said at a special meeting Monday night they don’t know where to go next in the shadow of a second failed school budget referendum.

The town council had made reductions to both of the school committee’s spending plans, which were both in turn rejected at the ballot box June 9 and Aug. 11. Most voters indicated that, in both cases, the proposals were too low.

The school budget validation referendums will continue until a budget is adopted.

Superintendent Richard Green said tentatively that a public hearing on the latest budget would be held Sept. 15 and the referendum on Sept. 22.

Town Manager Diane Barnes said the council plans to vote on the referendum schedule at its Sept. 3 meeting. The council wants to schedule the budget referendum so that if it fails again, a referendum could be held during the Nov. 3 election.

Meanwhile, the school department is operating under the budget approved by the town council on July 22 and failed at the Aug. 11 referendum.

On Monday, Green presented some worst-case scenarios — areas where school officials will have to cut if they are forced to continue to operate under that budget.

Administration, athletics and co-curricular programs, contracted services such as the school resource officers, foreign language, professional and student support services and visual performing arts — all are areas facing cuts.

Controversy revolves around the issue of whether the school department should use excess bond proceeds from its track and gymnasium projects to pay debt payments due in November, Green said. Town councilors and the town’s finance director have argued the bond proceeds shouldn’t be used this year until the gym project is complete.

Use of bond proceeds is a question the school committee will need to consider when it votes on a spending plan on Monday, Aug. 31. The school otherwise is forced to try to find the additional $305,000 for the debt payment by cutting its budget.

“It is definitely my responsibility to explain to the community what these reductions are going to look like,” Green said.

He added: “In the end if the council doesn’t change any of the numbers from the July 22 (budget), that’s what we have to work with and that’s pretty scary.”

“This is an incredible crisis,” Green said. “We have frozen our budget. I’ve never done that in August.”

The school department is holding off on filling some positions which will impact services and how it does business.

Green said he believes the school department has met the town council directive to cut $600,000 in additional local funds, which has been another “sticking point.”

The town council is slated to do its tax commitment this week based on the council’s

July 22 school budget, which prevents the school department from raising funds in excess of that budget.

“We’re between a rock and a hard place,” said school committee member Pete Reed. “People said they voted (the budget) down because it’s too low. We can’t increase it because the town council is setting the tax rate. There’s very little likelihood they’re going to change their minds on what the budget was they recommended on (July) 22 so I don’t know what to say.”

That budget will likely fail again, Reed said.

“It is a crisis and the town council has put us in this place and the people in this town need to stand up and say enough is enough to these people and vote them out of office,” Reed said, or recall them.

School committee member Gina Mason reminded fellow committee members they are impacting people on fixed incomes and families.

“No matter how we look at this, we’re all the same taxpayers, we’re all the same people, we’re all the same community,” she said.

School Committee Chairwoman Traci Austin said there is work to do by the Aug. 31 meeting and asked that committee members “come prepared to offer solutions, suggestions, on how to get where we need to go.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com