FARMINGTON — Residents approved, 294-193, next year’s budget for Mt. Blue Regional School District during a validation vote Thursday.
The $28.9 million budget, which covers the 2012-13 school year, results in a tax increase of about $355,000 across all the district’s 10 towns.
Superintendent Michael Cormier said he was pleased the budget passed, but noted that it wasn’t popular in some of the district’s towns.
Voters in Chesterville and Weld did not approve the budget, and voters in Vienna and New Sharon were split on the issue with results of 21-21 and 5-5, respectively.
Results in other towns were close, he said, but not in Farmington.
“Farmington carried the vote,” Cormier said of the 103-34 decision.
Earlier this week, about 200 residents turned out for a special meeting to review the budget proposal Monday in the Mt. Blue High School gymnasium. It passed without much debate, said Doug Hodum, president of the Mt. Blue Regional School District Education Association, a union.
That same night, the school board reversed an April decision that would have allowed the district to subcontract custodial services, Hodum said. Subcontracting had been a source of contention during negotiations between district officials and the union.
The board’s decision Monday spares the jobs or benefits of about 40 employees.
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