A sign welcomes voters to the Jefferson Village School Tuesday, Aug. 12 where residents defeated an education budget at the validation vote for the second time this summer. (Molly Rains photo)
For the second time this summer, Jefferson voters rejected a proposed education budget of over $10 million at the polls on Tuesday, Aug. 12, sending the budget back to the school committee.
The budget totaled $10,044,358.24, an increase an increase of $1,493,961.66 or 17.47% over last year as proposed. Residents initially approved the budget at an open meeting July 9.
Residents voted against the proposed budget 279-152.
District staff and members of the Jefferson School Committee had attributed the increase to an anomalously high, and growing, proportion of local special education students and difficulty attracting and retaining staff. Rising special education costs account for 78.5% of the year-to-year budget increase as proposed, said Jefferson School Committee Chair Danielle Bernier at a joint meeting of the town’s school and budget committees in June.
Bernier said the increase was necessary to fund legally mandated services and provide education to Jefferson’s diverse student population. However, some residents and budget committee members said they could not abide by the steep increase.
Residents’ defeat of the budget sends the proposal back to the school committee, who will reconvene to reconsider the budget once more, according to Peter Nielsen, AOS 93 Director of Finance and Operations.
Until voters approve and validate a budget total for this fiscal year – which began Aug. 1 – the school committee will operate based on their last adopted budget, Nielsen said. In Jefferson’s case, that budget is the $10 million budget adopted by the school committee and approved by open meeting voters on July 9.
The date of the school committee’s next meeting to consider a reworked budget was yet to be determined as of press time.
