The Sheepscot Valley Regional School District’s $20,271,921 budget for 2015-2016 received its final stamp of approval from voters at referendum Tuesday, June 9. A total of 670 voters turned out for the election, which was the final step in a months-long process to approve the budget.
The budget passed 415-255 opposed, according to unofficial results. Every municipality in RSU 12’s seven-town district, which includes Chelsea, Palermo, Windsor, Whitefield, Alna, Westport Island, and Somerville, approved the budget, with the exception of Somerville.
Somerville voters rejected the budget 29-13. “We really didn’t know what to expect,” RSU 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle said. “They [Somerville] were certainly seeing the largest increase in their local contribution.”
The budget narrowly passed in Chelsea, 80-75. Chelsea selectmen led the charge in efforts to reduce the budget to its 2014-2015 level at RSU 12’s annual budget meeting May 19 – a preliminary step to sending the budget to referendum.
The margin of approval was also narrow in Whitefield, 62-40. The remaining municipalities supported the budget by a large margin.
Since its preliminary release in March, RSU 12 administration and members of the board of directors embarked on a tour of selectmen’s meetings to present the budget to the public and gather input.
“The board put a lot of work into this,” Tuttle said. “We held a lot of meetings and tried to be as transparent as possible.”
The 2015-2016 budget is an increase of $537,654, or 2.72 percent, from the previous year’s budget of $19,734,267. The majority of increases were due to the increased cost and demand for health insurance, newly required state retirement contributions, and rising tuition rates – factors outside of RSU 12’s control, according to budget presentation documents.
Due to decreased revenue, the local share to the budget, $10,231,617, increased 3 percent from the previous year. Some municipalities saw an increase of over 11 percent to their local contributions while others saw a decrease of over 14 percent, due to a new cost sharing formula instituted by RSU 12 to equalize the cost per students.
Somerville was the municipality with the largest increase in their local contribution, which jumped to $526,691 in 2015-2016 from $474,356 in 2014-2015. Westport Island saw the largest decrease in their local contribution, which dropped to $865,725 in 2015-2016 from $1,012,040 in 2014-2015.
Westport Island approved the budget, 52-10.
Alna’s local contribution for the 2015-2016 school year also dropped to $891,984 from $898,625 in 2014-2015. Alna voters approved the budget, 35-2.
Whitefield’s local contribution increased to $2,106,573 in the 2015-2016 school year from $2,063,070 in 2014-2015.
Windsor saw the second largest increase to its local contribution, which jumped to $2,062,354 in 2015-2016 from $1,874,138 in 2014-2015. Windsor voters approved the budget 142-86.
Palermo’s local contribution also increased to $1,769,735 in 2015-2016 from $1,643,085 in 2014-2015. Palermo voters approved the budget 31-13.
“We’re definitely excited the budget passed,” Tuttle said. “One of the things we’ve learned from this process is that there’s a lot of support for education in the district.”
