Jefferson voters will consider an education budget increase of 17.47% over last year at the polls on Tuesday, Aug. 12.
The budget, which covers K-12 education for all Jefferson public school students, totals $10,044,358.24, an increase of $1,493,961.66 or 17.47% over last year. Jefferson residents landed at this number after a lengthy budget process that included their rejection of a lower proposed budget in June and a two-hour-long open meeting on July 9 where residents set the amount currently proposed.
As proposed, the total to be raised locally through taxes is $7,153,100.34, an increase of $1,316,465.77 or 22.56%.
District staff and members of the Jefferson School Committee 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.
Sixty seven percent of the school’s incoming kindergarten class was expected to need special education services as of late June, according to AOS 93 Director of Special Services Kelly Stokes State and federal laws require school districts to provide educational services and accommodations to students with special needs. The population of such students in Jefferson is more than four times the national average, which is 15%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
District officials said the reasons behind this increase are numerous and complex. Maine as a whole has more special education students than the U.S. average, at 20.48% for 2025, according to data provided by the Maine Department of Education.
Bernier said staffing challenges further exacerbated the situation, with the district being forced to pay for contractors at a rate that can be more than double the cost of an in-house service provider.
Opponents of the budget said they were upset at the scale of the increase and worried about Jefferson residents’ ability to foot the bill.
“I know it’s state mandated, I understand that, but I think as a town I felt compelled to stand up and say no,” said Lisa Hodgkins, a member of the Jefferson Budget Committee. “I do not agree with this budget. It is incredibly high.”
Validation at the polls Aug. 12 would be the last step in finalizing the budget for the 2025-26 school year. If voters reject the budget, as they did in June, the school district will continue to operate with the budget most recently adopted by the school committee – in this case, the same total voters are set to consider on Aug. 12, according to AOS 93 Executive Director of Finance and Operations Peter Nielsen.
The school committee would then revisit the budget, adopt a new total, and return to voters with an updated total, continuing the cycle until voters both approve and validate a total, according to Nielsen.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at Jefferson Village School. For more information, go to aos93.org/o/jvs or call 506-3044.
