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Mt. Blue budget voted down at second validation vote

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FARMINGTON – The $33.9 million budget approved by voters at the July 25 budget meeting was rejected at Thursday evening’s validation referendum, effectively restarting the budget process for the second time.

The preliminary, unofficial results, with all 10 towns reporting, indicate that the voters rejected the budget by a total of 139 votes: with 1,290 votes in favor and 1,429 opposed to validating the budget. That represents a slight narrowing of the June 13 vote, 139 votes compared to 184 votes, but not nearly enough to pass the $33.9 million budget.

Unofficial town-by-town results:

Chesterville – 55 yes and 172 no
Farmington – 555 yes and 442 no
Industry – 54 yes and 71 no
New Sharon – 95 yes and 204 no
New Vineyard – 25 yes and 90 no
Starks – 111 yes and 23 no
Temple – 50 yes and 69 no
Vienna – 51 yes and 40 no
Weld – 32 yes and 38 no
Wilton – 262 yes and 280 no

Current total – 1,290 yes and 1,429 no

That budget, which represented a $1.18 million increase over the previous fiscal year, would have resulted in a total tax assessment increase of $24,970, spread across all 10 towns. The process now restarts with the directors proposing a new budget, which will proceed to a new budget meeting and validation vote.

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[Editor’s Note: Clerks from New Sharon have confirmed that the town’s results were reported to newspapers incorrectly; they were inverted (from the correct 204 no and 95 yes to the incorrect 95 no and 204 yes). That error has been corrected below]

FARMINGTON – Mt. Blue Regional School District is holding its validation vote for the 2017-18 budget today in all 10 towns. Polls will close for most towns at 6, 7 or 8 p.m. tonight.

Temple, however, runs its polls from 7 a.m. until 12 p.m. Preliminary, unofficial results indicate that voters there rejected the new, $33.9 million budget with 50 votes in favor and 69 votes opposed.

Other towns, now reporting unofficial, preliminary results this evening, include Chesterville, Farmington, Industry, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Starks, Vienna, Wilton and Weld.

Results will be posted, as they come in, here:

Chesterville – 55 yes and 172 no
Farmington – 555 yes and 442 no
Industry – 54 yes and 71 no
New Sharon – 95 yes and 204 no
New Vineyard – 25 yes and 90 no
Starks – 111 yes and 23 no
Temple – 50 yes and 69 no
Vienna – 51 yes and 40 no
Weld – 32 yes and 38 no
Wilton – 262 yes and 280 no

Current total – 1,290 yes and 1,429 no

More details on the budget approved at the July 25 meeting can be found here.

The initial validation vote, held on June 13, resulted in the budget being defeated with 1,457 votes cast in favor and 1,641 votes cast in opposition. Those results can be see here:

Town-by-town results for the validation vote:
Weld – 34 yes and 52 no
Temple – 65 yes and 75 no
Chesterville – 61 yes and 183 no
Starks – 84 yes and 19 no
Industry – 65 yes and 89 no
Farmington – 644 yes and 501 no
New Vineyard – 31 yes and 109 no
New Sharon – 139 yes and 207 no
Vienna – 61 yes and 57 no
Wilton – 273 yes and 349 no

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128 Comments

  1. Nancy Porter had “the courage and conviction to own her positions and ideas”, remember how she was treated.

  2. @ Arnold P. said:

    “Much of the funding for special education is required so that the school district can continue to be compliant with the Federal law and continue to receive Federal and State funding.” Federal laws are not written in stone, they can be changed if and when majority opinions change. Those who feel that any law needs changing should contact their Congressional representatives and make their feelings known. Sometimes it’s possible to PERSUADE City Hall.

    Sir, please clarify what you think should happen with special education, because what it *sounds* like is rolling back hard-won civil rights and heading down a path towards eugenics.

  3. Cut Administration 30 sick days per. These days pile up and are bought by taxpayers at retirement. Start there!

  4. To Michael. Not sure what your situation is but how abut we give you and everyone in your family a 20 % cut in pay. I am not sure if you are aware that the teachers at RSU 9 are already some of the lowest paid in the State. They earn what they are paid and then some. People are quibbling over a few dollars here. I know for a fact this school is going to lose an amazing teacher because of this ridiculous bickering about these meager increases. The children are the ones who lose in this. There are many programs that help the seniors and low income. Maybe we should cut those programs so I too can have some tax relief….

  5. @ Dan Ryder I’m not sure the best way to get in touch with you. I’m interested in having a discussion off the bulldog. Maybe you could message my wife on Facebook and we can meet thanks. Look for Heidi

  6. @No Voter & @Captain Planet ~ You’re Right, my husband did put the motion in on my behalf but not because we were looking for “free money” but he has seen firsthand what I have done for the students, school, and community. He has felt the impact of lost time together because of how much time I did put into my program. I welcome you to google my name (Gail Carlson ASL) and see what I have done in the last 8 to 9 years. I have worked full-time hours since I transferred to Mt. Blue to help the community better understand the need for bridging both the Deaf and Hearing communities. I have brought well-known Deaf Performers, who perform around the world, to Mt. Blue without asking the school board for one dime towards the cost of these events. We are talking thousands of dollars. I have spent my own money creating ASL crafts to allow the students to help sell them (at local craft fairs and Deaf Culture Festivals) and use the money towards the annual shows. “Free Money”??? I have given so much to this community that if you knew me you would know that about me. If you have never attended one of the shows, then you have no idea of the impact this has had for the students. Students who have been deathly afraid to present in front of the class have performed on stage in front of hundreds of people. I encourage you to ask any of the former students or members of the community that have been to a show or two and ask them what kind of impact the ASL program has made. You will find that I have had at least one student every year I have been at Mt. Blue go on to college to study ASL to either become an interpreter or Teacher of the Deaf, which are highly needed in the state of Maine. We are currently looking for an ASL interpreter at the high school which is becoming difficult to fill because of the lack of skilled interpreters available. That means the student needing this interpreter will have to accept under par services while they are in classes this year, not okay. That, unfortunately, is the reality of the world at Mt. Blue and the school district (@Captain Planet).

    Why is it important to go full time? I am well worth my time. I am a Certified Teacher of the Deaf and Nationally Certified at the Master Level with the American Sign Language Teachers Association. I am pushing closer to retirement and I am planning my retirement accordingly (I will not need to rely on Social Security alone). I have had many career changes in my life but I know I can have a decent retirement if I plan accordingly. If I am not hired full time, I will be looking elsewhere to fulfill my goal. I may continue to stay half time but I will need to look for other sources of income which means some big changes in my program. I will be fulfilling my contract but there will be no room for the extras, such as, I will no longer be able to provide independent study courses for those students with an interest to go on to college for ASL studies but the hardest impact will be that I will not have the time to dedicate in planning the annual ASL show because I will need to find other sources of income. I have no doubt that I will be able to find something to fulfill my goals but I care about my own community and I am very passionate about what I do and teach. If another school nearby should start up an ASL program, I will be thinking about my family needs too.

    My classroom is open to everyone and anyone, before you judge me come see me in action. There is so much more to my program than you think.

    As for the ISP and Dual Diploma program, I have been part of the group to go to China and I know that it changed my life and the lives of the students that went. This is a program that will be bringing in revenues to help the school rebuild lost programs, and possibly new ones (scholarships??). Lisa has been working extremely hard at building this and we are now starting to see some fruition from it. Why would you mock this program when it is bringing in money that we will not need from you? I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t you want a student to have the opportunity to visit another country for cultural experiences? Some of these kids have never flown before, much less get to experience life on the other side of the world. Let’s give these students a reason to want to go to school. Support what we have and what we are building, especially if it is costing you peanuts compared to the results you get from those peanuts.

    Again, before you judge, know what you are judging. I welcome you to join my classes any time. I will be teaching on Blue Days for the 2017-2018 school year. You can contact me at gcarlson@mtbluersd.org to make plans to visit.

  7. @Arnold P

    I can only assumed you’ve abbreviated your last name, but hey, it’s 2017. I know a guy who legally added a hyphen to his first name so anything is possible.

    I’ve heard my colleagues raked over the coals on the Bulldog by anonymous and pseudonymous individuals. I’ve heard them accused of wasting money, ignoring people in poverty, lying, hiding, censoring, and good gravy . . .

    These are not facts — they are opinions and perspectives and people are absolutely entitled to them. And people are entitled to express them.

    What has happened to cause such a profound distrust of the school district and your neighbors that you actually fear using your name? Fear for your safety? Fear for your job? If that’s the case, I really do feel badly that you’ve been hurt deeply by someone because of your concerns about public spending. That’s not right.

    If you haven’t experienced such, do you think that poorly of your fellow community members that there would be legitimate retribution for expressing a valid and well reasoned criticism of the school district?

    If that’s the case, oh wow. We have so much more to work on in western Maine than school budgets.

    I’ve so much more to say about responsibility for ones words and actions, but I’ve said them all before and I don’t want to upset Captain Planet or Buckshot or any of the other fine folks on the Bulldog who I might unwittingly bump into standing in line for a mochadunkawhatever or pumping gas. It would be awesome to shake their hands, though. Nothing like a good natured rivalry of opinions to keep things lively on the ol’ Bulldog.

  8. John state teacher salary is obsessive in comparison to the rest of the real world, especially here in Maine above Portland. To compete to be the most obsessive is only the actions of those that bankrupt whatever entity he or she works for.

  9. To save money:
    Stop paying for the teachers to get their Masters Degree
    Stop paying for sick time buy back for teachers and administrators
    Stop increasing miles paid out to all employees for travel
    No more feeding employees on opening day
    No more field trips
    Buy out our highest paid teachers, if they want it. Give them an incentive to retire early
    Bring in some community people who would like to volunteer one day a week, just feed them a free lunch.
    There’s a lot of people in our town that are lonely and they have so much to offer a young adult. Let them help
    No more expensive workshops on poverty.

  10. “Legitimate retribution for expressing a valid and well reasoned criticism of the school district?” Perhaps that would be legitimate in some people’s opinions, I’d call that contradictory, but then, I’m not a tenured “colleague”.

  11. @Michael We are going to have to disagree on the pay of teachers. It is only 10% of the budget at the high school level. If taxes are so outrageous in this district people are free to sell and move to another. There was another person who believes I am trying to get my wife a full time position to get free money from the taxpayers. I know how many hours my wife has given free to the kids in her program. We have donated several thousand dollars of our own money to this program ASL…. Would it make my live easier. Yes it would. I would no longer have to work the extra 600 to 1000 hours of overtime I did in the past. So I could provide for my family. if people researched the actual cost to the taxpayers we are arguing over a few bucks to each household.

  12. My point was Mr. Ryder that there are many young adults that are ready to move on in life at an earlier age than 18.
    Many would benefit from serious apprentice programs. The community, businesses, the young people, parents.
    The ones that would lose out would be the schools. They would lose revenue.
    I am a retired auto mechanic and I can tell you that there is and will continue to be a real shortage of techs, plumbers, carpenters, not to mention farmers.
    Any one of these businesses could use apprentices and it could go towards the students diploma.
    As far as cutting costs there is no point in even mentioning my ideas.

  13. @CaptainOblivious- Again, do your research before making comments about something you know nothing about. ASL is not English. But let me go one step further. We could expect all students to use voice to text whether they are Deaf or hearing that way you can say they have equal access to education and you will be following the law. Doesn’t seem practical? Then why should we expect Deaf students to use an unnatural language to access education? ASL is a natural language used by the Deaf and hard of hearing, not to mention the nonverbal students.

    You also need to remember that not all students are able to read at the beginning elementary levels. While one would like to think there are easy fixes to this situation, don’t you think the Deaf educators have tried multiple strategies? What may work for one student may not always work for another. We, as teachers, are constantly working to find strategies to help each student succeed in their own ways. Hearing students are not always successful with auditory languages, such as French and Spanish, but having a visual language helps them accomplish World Language requirements for some colleges.

    If the community does not see the value enough to want ASL full time. Some one else will. I am not worried about me, it is and always will be about the students. You have several students who benefit from this language. But maybe you need to take a mini course to understand the value. I’d be happy to teach you a thing or two about deafness and how hearing loss affects these kids and I’d be teaching from experience.

  14. Captain oblivious sign language is important for a lot of things. Children can learn it before they can manage speech. Developmentally disabled peek can speak it if they cannot speak with their voice. Deaf people can speak it without a battery operated device. Same for non verbal people. Having to rely on “voice to text” would be pretty jseless if the batteries or technology fails, or if you can’t read.

  15. Regardless of whether ASL is taught at Mt. Blue, I have a suggestion that it (or something equivalent) be taught to or learned by EVERYONE worldwide! Imagine if all people, regardless of the language they normally speak and/or read, had a Universal Sign Language they could ALL understand! (I’m sure there must be a SL system for the Blind.) Much of the misunderstanding, suspicion, and hostility in the world, which contributes to war, etc., is because we speak thousands of different languages/dialects, etc., and can’t readily communicate with each other. It should be easier to travel to foreign countries, have tourists, etc. from foreign countries come here, easier for international business, the UN, government negotiations, etc. USL as a second language! I LIKE it! I think we should get to work on it ASAP!

  16. Re Mr. Carlson’s “If taxes are so outrageous in this district people are free to sell and move to another!” Now THERE”S a sentiment that’s sure to swing a lot of NO voters into the YES column! NOT!! I expect a lot of NO voters will bring it up as a sign of the prevailing Proponent attitude toward the taxpayers if/when another Budget vote is held! Well played? NOT!! Imagine if taxpayers said “If teachers’ pay and benefits are so low in this district, teachers are free to quit their jobs, sell their homes, and go somewhere else!”

  17. Like Mr. Carlson’s statement, ASL Teacher’s “@CaptainOblivious- Again, do your research before making comments about something you know nothing about.” is hardly likely to make friends or influence any NO voters to come over to the YES side, on the contrary, it indicates a pretty unhelpful attitude that is likely to harden the opposition.

  18. @Arnold P – I am not here to make friends or sway people’s vote. I am here with the truth and the facts. If I do not have them, I will not comment on it. I just wish others would do the same. People have minds of their own and have their own reasons to vote the way they do and I can respect that but when someone is trying to push a view that is not true or factual, I have a problem with that.

    Also, there is such a thing as International Sign Language used by the Deaf people and interpreters when they come together for world Deaf conferences to discuss issues at hand. I encourage you to request such a class and get the ball rolling. I would love to partake in learning it myself. There are several countries that use or borrow from ASL which makes it easier to communicate in our signed system.

  19. Thank you, ASL Teacher, for your contributions to education and society in general. Funny how a lot of teachers are like YOU!

  20. again, if you can’t afford taxes, you can’t afford to live where you do. that’s the principle of living within one’s means that conservatives tout in every economic scenario but this one, apparently. and how did we get to the point where a person who works for a living, to educate your and your neighbour’s children, is somehow getting “free money” from the conservative perspective? i suppose you can apply these principles whenever they suit you, and reject them without irony when they don’t. carry on.

  21. Re Arnold P. Really think I am pissing off people for real? I heard several people at the school budget vote say if Teachers don’t like the pay then go some place else. And that is true the teachers can seek employment else where and they have. If you live in an area where it cost to much to live. It is time to reevaluate if it is worth the struggle. Changes happen and people face struggles everyday. That is just the reality of life. I have been destroyed financially in my past. But I got up and figured out how to make it work.

  22. @Arnold P. funny.

    Nancy Porters letter to the editor: Your comment

    “Arnold P.
    July 17, 2017 • 11:32 pm

    “It’s possible that if the Socialist wannabees actually moved to a Socialist country, Sweden, for example, they might be happier. I’m certain the rest of us would!”

    – Your comment from an opinion letter. and now.

    “Arnold P.
    August 6, 2017 • 11:14 pm

    Re Mr. Carlson’s “If taxes are so outrageous in this district people are free to sell and move to another!” Now THERE”S a sentiment that’s sure to swing a lot of NO voters into the YES column! NOT!! I expect a lot of NO voters will bring it up as a sign of the prevailing Proponent attitude toward the taxpayers if/when another Budget vote is held! Well played? NOT!! Imagine if taxpayers said “If teachers’ pay and benefits are so low in this district, teachers are free to quit their jobs, sell their homes, and go somewhere else!””

    Your own words just looking to make it something it is not. Speak from truth not anger.

  23. Arnold P.
    August 6, 2017 • 11:24 pm

    …”it indicates a pretty unhelpful attitude that is likely to harden the opposition.”

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