Even when asked if they would reconsider, a group of Damariscotta voters still said no to the proposed secondary regular instruction and special education budget during the Wednesday, May 6 town meeting.

Instead, the school board will need to go back to the drawing board and come back with another proposal before July 1.

Should no new budget be presented, the secondary school budget will be the same as the 2014-2015 budget — which is $444,000 less than the budget the town voted down Wednesday.

Almost 30 people attended the meeting, and while some of the conversation was steered toward the general increase from 2014-15, to the proposed budget, most of the discussion swirled around the cost of one student.

In the proposed budget, approximately $200,000 was asked of the voters to pay for one special needs student to attend a specialty school out of state. Overall, the proposed budget would have increased from $1.27 million in 2014-15 to $1.7 million in 2015-16. 

Attorney Eric Herlan spoke about the limited options the town has when it comes to funding the special education request. Herlan, a special education attorney, said some of the money could be coming back to the town.

“Damariscotta is in a bit of a jam,” he said. “The biggest piece is the single placement (that could) cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it’s difficult. But I’ve seen numbers that are a lot lower, and I’ve seen numbers that are higher.”

Herlan said that up to $45,000 could be coming back to the town via a reimbursement. But if Damariscotta doesn’t pay for the student’s tuition, the state of Maine could withhold funds, Herlan said.

“I know the placement worries people, but it has to be paid for,” he said.

The student’s placement was decided by an Individual Education Program (IEP) team, which met independently to decide which school could best meet the student’s needs, Herlan said. While there were options in Maine, the best fit, Herlan said, was out of state.

Damariscotta resident George Betke said the town was largely blindsided by the large increase.

“We’re being asked to pass this budget with blinders on,” he said. “Why weren’t we alerted that this ($200,000) cost was coming? I think it behooves us to know the nature of the special needs — if they are education, medical.

“What is it that could possibly cost $200,000 a year? I think that’s asking a lot of our small community to pay for this, when all that is asked of us is to provide a reasonable education for our students. I think reasonable also includes cost considerations.”

AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey said the town’s rejection of the budgets could put students in jeopardy next year. If no new budget can be agreed upon, the town would still have to pay for the out-of-state tuition, albeit with its current budget.

“We would have to operate using the 2014-15 budget until a new one was fully adopted,” he said. “We will still receive invoices. But the (current budget) is 35 percent less than what’s being requested.”

When asked what penalties that scenario could incur, Bailey said the consequences could be severe.

“We’ll still have the obligation and maybe by the third quarter we’ll have to come back and ask for more money or school would end,” he said.

In the end, voters approved only $128,648. The school board will likely reconvene and submit another budget to be passed before July 1.