The $37.8 million budget recommended by the Marshwood school board was approved Monday after repeated efforts to reduce next year’s spending were defeated, narrowly at first and then resoundingly as latecomers crowded into the high school auditorium.
A motion on Article 1 to reduce funding for elementary and secondary instruction from the proposed $16.5 million to last year’s appropriation of $15.6 million barely missed approval in a show-of-hands vote, with 59 yes and 62 no.
A requested paper ballot vote on the reduction was slowed by the production and distribution of additional ballots, a procedure that had been scheduled only for Article 13. The amended Article 1 again failed, 63 to 65. As late arrivals showed up, full funding of Article 1 as proposed by the board was approved, 70 to 61.
Votes ultimately were cast by 186 people at the two-hour meeting, with the proposed district budget of $37,831,622 approved 123 to 63.
South Berwick and Eliot voters who spoke in favor of reducing spending in eight articles to last year’s allocations called the proposed increases an unreasonable burden on taxpayers.
Paul Steinhauer of South Berwick complained that taxpayers are excluded from the budget process, allowed to speak only three minutes at school board meetings, and get no answers to their questions. He called on the board to show “restraint” in spending, just as households have to do when costs rise.
Lisa McGinness of Eliot said the estimated 5% increase in property taxes is unfair to people whose own wages are not rising in response to increased costs. She has heard of many families taking their children out of district schools, she said, and asked why proposed spending is higher if enrollment is declining.
Ryan Cormier, district finance manager, said pre-K to grade 12 enrollment of 2,120 changed by only three students between this year and last, and next year’s figure won’t be known until that start of school in the fall.
Taking issue with the $2.2 million transportation allocation, Richard “Rob” Bernier of South Berwick asked why the district is “blindly wasting money” by running buses he said are mostly empty. Cormier said bus service is required by federal and state law. “Children have a right to ride the bus,” he said.
Because of decreased ridership, Cormier said, three bus runs were consolidated last year. An Eliot parent criticized that change, saying her child now spends an hour “winding through town” on the bus after his 7 ½-hour school day.
A testy exchange between two South Berwick residents occurred early in the evening, when one of them asked the moderator to remove the other from the meeting for heckling him and using vulgar hand gestures, to which the second man responded boisterously.
Greg Im, the budget meeting moderator, said the incident would be overlooked because it hadn’t disrupted the proceedings. He requested that voting resume and that everyone in attendance “be nice.”
The recorded meeting will be available on the school district’s YouTube page.
