WESTBROOK – Westbrook residents will vote Tuesday, June 11, on a two-question ballot: the $32.1 million school budget for the upcoming year and continuing the yearly validation referendum on the budget.
Historically, June votes with only the school election appearing on the ballot have resulted in very low turnout rates, according to City Clerk Lynda Adams. In June 2011, the last time the school budget was the lone item on the agenda, only about one-tenth, slightly more than 1,000, of the 10,000 registered voters in Westbrook turned out for the election. An election costs the city about $4,000, Adams said.
The school department’s $32.1 million budget will not increase taxes for residents. While the budget is up nearly $1.4 million, a bump in state aid from decreasing property values and increasing student population kept the budget flat for taxpayers.
If passed, the district would see 12 new positions, offset in part by the reduction of nine positions: five in maintenance, which will be outsourced; and the rest from unfilled positions. A large focus of the new jobs will be to help keep class sizes down at the elementary schools.
Director of Operations Dean Flanagin said projections show the school population will most likely continue to increase, which means the future budgets may go up in order to accommodate that growth. One plan could include building six additional classrooms on the top floor of the middle school and expanding the Sacarrappa Elementary School to give it a separate gym, cafeteria and auditorium, instead of the mixed-use room the building has now.
The school department is hiring a technology coordinator this year, along with maintenance and transportation coordinators, who will work under Flanagin specifically to help keep the schools utilizing the available technology.
The new coordinator may also help decide which platform, Mac or PC, the district wants now that Gov. Paul LePage has announced that Hewlett Packard laptops will be the Maine Learning Technology Initiatives preferred computer, instead of the Apple laptops, the preferred computers since the program began 13 years ago.
Depending on that decision, seventh- and eighth-grade students could be working on PCs, while everyone else in the district is using Apple laptops. The Apple MacBook Air and iPads are also available for purchase under the program, but the state will only cover the computers and tablets up to the price of the Hewlett Packard laptop.
Superintendent Marc Gousse said one of his main concerns about the budget validation process is that a low voter turnout does not provide school officials with a comprehensive overview of how residents feel about the budget
City Administrator Jerre Bryant said low voter turnout was also a concern to him.
“If it’s just a stand-alone issue, the turnout is real, real low. Under direct democracy if only 10 percent of voters show up to vote, what are you achieving?” Bryant said.
The budget validation vote was mandated by the state 2007 for all school districts as part of school consolidation laws. The question of whether to continue the validation process is put on the ballot every three years. If Westbrook residents vote to leave the budget process in the hands of elected officials, the City Council would have the last word on the school budget.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
