A commanding majority of the 700 South Berwick and Eliot voters at the marathon Marshwood district budget meeting Monday sent a $38,989,582 school budget for 2025-2026 to a June 10 validation vote.
The final vote came nearly three hours after the meeting started even though not a single audience comment was offered on any of the 16 articles of the budget warrant.
Three paper ballot votes, one of them required by statute, extended the meeting by two hours.
When the meeting opened, Rob Bernier of South Berwick entered a motion that the votes on every article be conducted by paper ballot instead of the usual raised hands. Portland attorney Bill Stockmeyer, the meeting moderator, said such a motion would have to be made for each article.
A show of hands in support of paper ballots for Article 1 appeared to meet the required 10% of the number voting, Stockmeyer said, but he called for a ballot vote to be certain the threshold was met. In his experience, he added, entering a new motion for each article, besides prolonging the process by hours, usually runs its course after the first five or six votes when outcomes become obvious.
Ballot clerks handed ballots printed with “yes” and “no” to the hundreds of people who slowly made their way in two lines to the front of the gymnasium to cast their vote into one of four ballot boxes. The eight ballot clerks, four from each town, then spent more than a half-hour counting the votes.
The results, 96-548, confirmed that support for paper ballots on Article 1 exceeded the 10% requirement.
The secret ballot vote on Article 1 – allocating $16,872,085, primarily for instructional salaries – was approved 510-107 after nearly another hour of voting and counting. The 617 votes cast were 83 fewer than the 700 voters checked in.
Before the second warrant article was read, Joel-Michael Martin of South Berwick, noting that many people had left the meeting during the vote counting, entered a motion to return to voting by a show of hands, and the meeting erupted in loud cheers.
“I will take that reaction as a yes,” Stockmeyer said, and returned the meeting to a hand count, made easier by large green cards the voters raised for either a yes or no vote on each article.
Stockmeyer noted that Article 13 would be the exception because a written ballot is legally required to raise the $8,178,225 portion of the budget that exceeds the state’s Essential Programs and Services funding model. That article was approved 477-57.
Voters quickly approved all the other articles in about 20 minutes with no debate:
- $7,367,403 for special education services
- $101,900 for career and technical education of Marshwood students attending Sanford Regional Vocational and Dover schools
- $1,191,624 for all co-curricular and extra-curricular programs, to include additional funds for a required athletic trainer
- $3,957,753 for student and staff support services including guidance, nursing, library, curriculum and staff development, technology and assessment. The budget includes new computers for the teachers, replacing devices that are no longer functioning well.
- $1,226,987 for central administration including the school board, superintendent and business office
- $2,015,417 for all school building administration
- $2,358,850 for transportation for all students to and from school, including special needs students, out of district placements, and transportation to vocational centers.
- $3,847,563 for maintenance and operation of all school buildings and grounds, including custodial services, building repairs, utilities, insurance, building security and minor construction projects. The article includes a $100,000 contingency fund for unexpected maintenance issues.
- $50,000 for an additional contingency fund and/or for transfer to the food service program.
