Around 30 Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor voters passed the $10,480,417 Community School District budget Aug. 25. The budget has a 0.7% increase. Moderator Melissa Holmes Whitt introduced each article asking for floor votes for all except Article 13 which appropriated $5,246,436 and raised $4,667,363 for public education pre-K through twelfth grade.

Prior to the first budget vote on Article 2, Boothbay Harbor resident Tom Perkins thanked all CSD staff including Facilities and Transportation Director Dave Benner and Boothbay Region Elementary and High schools’ principals Tricia Campbell and Shawna Kurr. Perkins also spoke to his and other residents’ concerns over the budget process the past two years. Said Perkins, “We’ve certainly heard a lot of mixed messages lately. One meeting, we are told every possible penny must be cut from the budget. Then the next meeting we seem to have $1 million surplus … It looks like the motive was to stockpile as much money as possible into some reserve fund … to tap every year without direct oversight by our townspeople … So this year I’m out. I’m a big fan of our local school system and its people, but I plan to vote no tonight on all budget items.”

All articles passed with just Perkins’ dissension. Article 2 approved $4,058,790 for regular instruction; Article 3, $1,803,917, special education; Article 4, $0, career and technical education; Article 5, $277,358, other instruction; Article 6, $956,998, student and staff support; Article 7, $288,972, system administration; Article 8, $600,996, school administration; Article 9, $455,379, transportation and buses; Article 10, $1,376,364, facilities maintenance; Article 11, $536,643, debt service; and Article 12, $125,000, for all other expenses.

Article 14 applies $4,047,938 in additional local funds which exceed Maine’s allocation model by $3,922,938. This is due to higher costs of maintaining student to teacher ratios, special education programming, extracurricular activities and transportation.

Voters approved Article 15, the CSD’s overall budget of $10,480,417, and Article 16, appropriation of $61,430 and raising of $50,323 for adult education.

Articles 17 and 18 authorized the CSD board to spend grants not of additional cost and to use additional state subsidies. Article 19 granted authority to the CSD board to make cost center budget transfers exceeding 5% of total appropriations. Articles 20, 21 and 22 established a capital improvements reserve of $140,000, an employee retirement reserve and an emergency reserve of $100,000.