$50.1 Million Oxford Hills School Budget Rejected for Second Time

Residents in the Oxford Hills School District (MSAD 17) have voted to reject a proposed FY25 school budget for a second time.

The version of the budget considered at the ballot box Tuesday represented about a $770,000 decrease over the proposal rejected by voters in June when nearly 60 percent of those who turned out to the polls expressed opposition.

Totaling $50,787,939, the revised budget represents a 5.91 percent increase over the FY24 school budget despite the inclusion of several staffing cuts across the elementary, middle, and high schools.

Of the 1,299 votes cast across the eight towns which fall under the district, 596 were in favor of the revised budget, and the remaining 703 were against it.

Harrison and West Paris — two of the smaller towns included in the district — appear to have been the primary deciding factor in the second-round rejection of the budget.

More than 81 percent of Harrison voters and 76 percent of West Paris voters expressed opposition to the proposed budget for the upcoming school year.

While Oxford and Paris both defeated the school budget as well, margins were much thinner in both towns. A single vote separated support and opposition in Oxford, while just twenty-three votes made the difference in Paris.

The majority of Hebron, Norway, Otisfield and Waterford residents voted in support of the revised FY25 school budget.

“Thank you to the citizens of the Oxford Hills who participated in the budget referendum,” MSAD 17 Superintendent Heather Manchester reportedly said in an email to the Advertiser Democrat Tuesday night.

“We recognize the support of the budget from 4 out of the 8 towns in the district,” Superintendent Manchester continued. “Moving forward, our task is to identify reductions in areas that have the least impact on the education of our students while arriving at a figure that meets the needs of our taxpayers.”

Click Here for More Information on the Rejected MSAD 17 FY25 School Budget

MSAD 17 is just one of many school districts statewide that has been receiving push back from residents on increasingly expensive budgets accompanied by hefty property tax increases.

For the first time in the town’s history, Westbrook residents rejected a proposed school budget. Local officials went on to cut about $700,000 off the price tag, bringing the expected property tax hike down from 15.7 percent to 13 percent.

997 ballots were cast in favor of the revised budget when residents returned to the polls in July, while 859 voted in opposition, meaning that the vote was decided by just 138 ballots.

[RELATED: Westbrook Voters Approve $51 Million School Budget with 13% Property Tax Hike by 138 Votes]

Lewiston residents went to the polls three times before narrowly supporting a FY25 school budget in early July. The final version of the budget came to a total of $109.6 million and an accompanying school-side property tax hike of approximately 9 percent.

About 54 percent of those who turned out to the polls voted in support of the proposal, which is roughly equal to the proportion of voters who rejected the second draft of the budget in June.

With 1,230 votes in support of the proposal and 1,033 in opposition, the school district’s FY25 was ultimately approved with a margin of less than two hundred ballots.

Voters were also asked to answer a “non-binding advisory question” concerning the budget wherein they had the opportunity to indicate whether they felt the proposed FY25 was “too high,” “acceptable,” or “too low.”

Similar to the results of the budget referendum itself, roughly 48 percent of those who voted expressed a belief that the budget up for consideration this month was “too high.”

[RELATED: Lewiston Voters Approve Third Iteration of School Budget with $109.6 Million Price Tag and 9% Property Tax Hike]

The margin of victory for Gorham’s FY25 school budget was so close that it prompted residents to initiate recount proceedings that ultimately verified the results but revealed that the vote was even closer than it was originally believed to be.

When voters initially went to the polls on June 11, the $53 million school budget and its associated 9.05 percent property tax rate increase appeared to pass by four votes, but the recount showed that it was actually approved by just two votes.

[RELATED: Recount Results: $53 Million School Budget with 9.05% Property Tax Hike Approved by Two Votes]

MSAD 17 does not appear to have scheduled a time for residents of the towns under its jurisdiction to return to the polls and vote on an updated version of the school budget for FY25.