Voters Again Reject Wales School District Budget

Voters in Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales rejected Regional School Unit 4’s 2024-25 school budget referendum for the second time on Tuesday. Pictured above is the RSU 4 central office in Wales. Andrée Kehn/Sun Journal file

WALES — Voters in Regional School Unit 4 rejected the school district’s 2024-25 budget in a referendum Tuesday.

The second referendum resulted in 337 votes for and 514 votes against the proposed budget of $22.78 million. This amount represents a reduction of nearly $600,000 from the first proposed budget.

The count for each town is as follows: Litchfield, 151 yes, 276 no; Sabattus, 118 yes, 162 no; and Wales, 68 yes, 72 no.

District residents rejected a $23.37 million budget in the first referendum held June 11, voting 498 in favor and 813 against. That figure represents an increase of 8.4 percent, or $1.79 million, over last year’s budget. propose The budget was cut by a further 2.5%, which is 5.6% more than last year’s budget.

RSU 4 Superintendent Katy Grondin said schools are hopeful communities will support the new budget and said a lot of work has been done to further reduce the fiscal impact while maintaining a high-quality education for students in the district.

“Although the budget was not adopted, we remain committed to working with the community to find a solution that meets the needs of our students and respects the concerns of our taxpayers,” said Mr. Grondin.

Anticipating that the budget might not pass, Grondin said the board has prepared a timeline for the next budget referendum: discussions will take place Aug. 21 with a view to approval by the board on Aug. 28. The district will hold a public budget meeting on Sept. 11 and the referendum is scheduled for Sept. 24.

Copy story link

” Previous

Following ”