By Sandy Meindersma
Correspondent
Posted Sep. 16, 2015 at 9:50 PM
Updated Sep 16, 2015 at 11:27 PM
RUTLAND - The Wachusett Regional School District continues to operate without a budget after a $390,000 override ballot vote failed, 781-697, Wednesday.
The vote failed in Precincts 1 and 3, 249-216 and 281-212, respectively; in Precinct 2, the vote was tied at 251-251. The 1,460 voters represented more than 25 percent of the registered voters in town.
A larger override vote, in the amount of $439,000, failed as part of the annual town election in May.
Had the override been approved, the school district would have had four towns that had approved its
$83.3 million budget, and would no longer be required to limit its monthly expenditures to one-twelfth of last year’s $81 million budget.
Holden, Princeton and Sterling all passed the budget at their annual town meetings, while Paxton and Rutland both approved amounts lower than requested by the school district.
School Superintendent Darryll McCall was disappointed with the election results Wednesday.
“While I am very disappointed that the override failed in Rutland, I am encouraged by the fact that so many people turned out to vote to let the community know that they support education within our District,” Mr. McCall said.
The Wachusett Regional School Committee is meeting Thursday night to discuss the district’s next steps.
Committee Chairman Lance Harris said that while he was disappointed with the results, the school district is prepared to move forward.
“We had hoped that parents who came out to the town meeting would be able to motivate others to vote,” he said. “We were given an extension on our budget until Friday to allow the people of Rutland to vote on the budget.
“One way or another, we will have a budget tomorrow night,” Mr. Harris said on Wednesday evening. “We will be voting on the number that Rutland has approved, which will mean a $1.7 million cut. If the committee does not approve that number, we have other options to consider.”
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ReplyDelete"other options to consider" Now what can they mean by that ? Are they going to drag all of the towns into a multi town, town meeting to force their issues ?? How many times do people have to say no before they get the message. I never want to go through another farce like we went through when the late Bob Hubbard failed to count the votes in the cafeteria, and denied the request for paper votes, because it would take to long, and it was hot. The schools won the day, but lost respect from me, and I will never sit through a poorly run meeting like that with out speaking up, even if they have to take me out of the building, this time, kicking and screaming. Every once and a while when things like this come up, and I am so pisses at myself that I did not speak up, I wonder if I am the only one that feels this way ?
ReplyDeleteNo Bev, your not alone. The problem is to have the guts to speak up and speak your mind. Most would not even have the backbone to raise a hand and vote against a popular issue. If the same thing goes on again in this town and the help gets another layoff due to financial management problems things will be worse than ever. Within a short time of the new accountant working for Templeton the results are more improvement than in the last 2 years before her hire. When will the books be completed and how will Templeton look after they are is yet to be seen. One thing for sure it's the fault of the lack of knowledge from those we trusted to do the jobs they were hired to do. Some that were fired and some that quit can have their share of the blame. They all know who they are and are many.
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