Written by Tom Walsh
ELLSWORTH — Lamoine remains the exception to the rule, as the only Hancock County community to date to reject its proposed school budget.
Voters in Ellsworth and numerous surrounding small towns participated Tuesday in school budget validation referendums, with every proposed budget being approved.
On May 27, School Union 92 voters in Lamoine rejected the proposed Lamoine Consolidated School budget by a vote of 302-175.
In most Hancock County communities, the outcomes of Tuesday’s voting wasn’t close, as was the case throughout most of the state.
In Ellsworth, there were 434 votes cast for the school budget and 195 against. There was even a wider margin in Bar Harbor, with 855 “yes” votes and 134 “no” votes.
The closest vote in Hancock County came in Aurora, a School Administrative District (SAD) 8 community where voters were deadlocked 12-12. The widest margin of approval, 11-0, was in the SAD 8 community of Great Pond.
Bucksport was close, too, with 210 votes cast in favor of the school budget and 207 against it. Voters in both Prospect and Verona Island, which as SAD 18 enroll students in the Bucksport schools, approved their shares of the Bucksport budget on votes of 44-37 and 41-25, respectively. Those outcomes boosted Bucksport’s margin of approval on Tuesday to 295-269.
Voters in all six School Union 96 communities approved their school budgets Tuesday. Voters in Gouldsboro and Winter Harbor voted 217-25 and 67-25, respectively, to approve the Peninsula School District budget. They also voted 212-31 and 70-23, respectively, to approve the budget for Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan.
School Union 96 voters in Franklin, Sorrento and Sullivan approved the budget for Mountain View School in Sullivan by these respective margins: 89-20, 43-15 and 106-31. Those communities’ approvals of the Sumner Memorial High School budget were 91-18, 43-14 and 102-33, respectively.
In Steuben, the only Washington County community within School Union 96, the Ella Lewis School budget won approval, 79-40, as did the Sumner Memorial High School budget, 73-45.
Voters in Deer Isle whose property taxes help to underwrite the Deer Isle-Stonington schools approved the school district’s budget 186-57, with their counterparts in Stonington voting approval, 92-21. Both communities also approved adult education budgets by votes of 197-45 in Deer Isle and 96-15 in Stonington.
Voters approved Amherst’s share of the SAD 8 budget, 33-5. Osborn voters approved their portion of the SAD 8 budget, 10-5.
School Union 92 voters in Mariaville voters also approved their school budget, 39-18.