Last week Damariscotta residents vetoed the proposed $1,713,896 secondary school budget. We don’t blame them really. As presented, the bottom line included a near 35 percent increase from the 2013-2014 budget. Almost any increase that size is going to hurt.
A large part of the debate focused on the proposed $200,000 expense required to serve one special needs student. School officials are limited in what they can say. Town officials are limited in what they can do, and the bottom line, as always, is the local property taxpayer is on the hook for the bill.
Given the paucity of information and apparent lack of other options, Damariscotta residents are understandably irate. Unfortunately, despite their opposition, they have precious little recourse.
All of this is detailed in J.W. Oliver’s front-page story, and Damariscotta resident George Betke thoughtfully lays out the concerns in his letter to the editor, both in this issue.
What did not make J.W.’s story, but did make his notes, are some of the more incendiary comments made during the evening.
This meeting was notable for the pure, personal vitriol directed at this one student and the student’s family, whoever they are. Listening to the debate, you would think this family decided to have a child with special needs and then deliberately chose to stick Damariscotta with the bill for the most expensive education they could find.
It was ugly, unseemly, and completely at odds with the image Damariscotta likes to project to the world. In fact, certain Damariscotta residents showed they can be as petty, vicious, and self righteous as residents in any other town.
The issue is not this kid. The issue is this situation and this situation is the result of a flawed funding model that mandates expenses without regard to the ability to pay. For the other 491 towns in Maine, it is purely luck of the draw this family settled in Damariscotta as opposed to anywhere else.
Why did they move to Damariscotta, as some asked last week? We have no idea, but probably for the same reasons everybody else does. Why wouldn’t they move here?
If the parents did lobby for what they perceived to be the best interest for their child, as some have asserted, and we don’t know for a fact that they did, so what? That’s what parents are supposed to do, isn’t it?
The other side of that is accepting less for your child because you value other people more. What kind of parent does that? Would you be more concerned about your neighbor’s taxes than the needs of your own child?
If there is anyone who deserves to be vilified about this situation it would be current and former state officials who have done nothing to move the state closer to the 100 percent funding level for special education voters mandated in 2004.
Whatever Damariscotta does, it was wrong to take out personal frustrations on one family for exercising their right to choose where they want to live and avail themselves of the systems that are in place to serve every citizen.
The insults directed at them stain Damariscotta’s collective honor.
