Falmouth voters OK $25M school spending plan

By Linda Maule (published: May 08, 2008)

FALMOUTH – Voters approved the $25.1 million school budget Tuesday by a 2-1 margin.

The vote was 546-252. Approximately 10 percent of the town’s eligible voters went to the polls, a turnout described as “respectable” by Town Clerk Kathleen Babeu.

The Town Council approved the budget, which represents an increase of 3.5 percent over current spending of $23.3 million, on April 28. But for the first time this year, under the state’s new school consolidation law, residents also had to give the budget an up-or-down vote in a referendum no more than two weeks after the council’s vote.

School Board members were pleased about Tuesday’s outcome.

“I wasn’t worried, but it’s our first time out of the gate on this,” Chairwoman Beppie Cerf said Wednesday morning. “We really didn’t have any idea how the vote would go.

“The administration worked very hard during the whole process, and voters support the schools so that’s great,” Cerf said, adding her thanks “to the Falmouth community for supporting the schools.”

The board’s finance chairwoman, Katherine Hillman-Reed, was also happy. “I’m very pleased. I think that a better than 2-1 ratio in support of the budget makes a statement that the community supports the school budget. I think it’s just great, and I’m glad to see as many people turned out as they did. We didn’t know what to expect.”

“A lot of people worked really hard to make that happen. All of us on the School Board are grateful to them,” Hillman-Reed said.

Falmouth’s vote was one of the first to take place under the new consolidation law. The validation vote gives the School Board authority to raise $4.6 million above what is funded under the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act. Falmouth’s EPS funding model at 100 percent is $20.03 million.

If the budget had failed, additional validation referendums would have been held until a budget passed. Falmouth’s budget analyst, Randy Davis, said that the special election cost approximately $3,000.

The school budget was first proposed with a 3.74 percent increase, but was reduced by the School Board to a 3.6 percent increase.

The board then brought the budget down to a 3.5 percent increase after Town Councilor Tony Payne issued a challenge in April for the council and School Board to reduce the increase that much more.

Four councilors wanted to keep the budget increase at 3.6 percent, but by the final vote, five councilors voted to approve the 3.5 percent increase. Two were opposed.

School Superintendent George Entwistle said Wednesday that “needless to say, I’m really pleased, but not terribly surprised in terms of the continued support we have received from this community. They are proud and excited and supportive of their schools. Two-to-one is a nice way to demonstrate that, so we’re pleased.”

Finance Director Dan O’Shea also was pleased. “I think it’s a good budget and although this was the first time through the process, it seems like there was a decent turnout. ... We’re very happy to be through the process.”

A transitional Regional School Committee will now begin work on creating a new regional consolidated school district with School Administrative District 51, which includes Cumberland and North Yarmouth.

The reorganization plan that was deemed complete by state Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron on May 1 will be submitted to voters on Nov. 4, and a nine-member RSU board may also be elected at that time.

Cerf said Wednesday that it is unclear now whether the RSU board election will be held in November. If it isn’t held then, it will be held in January, she said. The RSU is scheduled to become operational on July 1, 2009.

The new consolidated school district will be called the New Casco Bay School District.

Consolidation is not without opposition in Falmouth, however. Resident Patty Weber told the Town Council at the April 28 school budget meeting that 600 Falmouth residents had signed a petition asking that a consolidation repeal referendum be placed on a state ballot.