LUBEC, Maine - The school board has to redo the proposed school budget after it was defeated Tuesday 144-136.
It has been a slippery slope for the school budget process. Lubec, like other communities in the state, took a major hit in its state school subsidy. The town's state aid went from $728,000 to $433,000.
School board members were faced with a dilemma: cut the budget or pass the increases on to property taxpayers.
When the school budget was first presented at a public meeting earlier this year, it looked as if the school board was trying to push through a nearly 21 percent increase from last year. Although most who spoke said they favored the increase, the majority of people who attended were silent.
The next day, school board Vice Chairwoman Diana Wilson, with help from school administrators, reduced the budget to an 11 percent increase from last year.
After going through several approval processes including one by the full school board, the 11 percent increase was unveiled at a public meeting June 5. After some discussion, a handful of people voted to restore a secretarial position that had been cut. It represented a $25,000 increase in the budget.
That revised budget was then presented to voters on Tuesday and defeated.
"I think that the people were not happy with the $25,000 that was added back into the budget [for the secretarial position]," Wilson said. "They recognized that a school with 153 children does not need five secretaries."
Asked if a school that small needed four secretaries, Wilson said that was a decision for next year. "Right now we are going to keep four secretaries. We cut two teachers so in all fairness we needed to cut some in administration," she said.
Now that the budget has been rejected, it goes back to the school board Tuesday for reconsideration.
"I feel the school board as a whole will take that position back out again," she said.
Superintendent Mike Buckley said Wednesday that if a revised budget is approved on Tuesday, the measure will go before voters at a public meeting on Thursday, June 26.
If approved, it will again be put out for a referendum vote on Tuesday, July 1.