School district budget passes easily

Henry Laviolette mans the voting machine as he assists a Lebanon resident during yesterday's School District referendum at Lebanon Elementary School. (Harrison Thorp photo)

NORTH BERWICK - MSAD 60's $36.2 million budget was approved easily last night with 56 percent of the vote favoring the district’s articles put forth and approved at last Thursday’s District Budget Meeting at Noble High School.

The tightest vote of the day was right here in Lebanon where the budget passed by just 13 votes, 126-113, a majority of just 53 percent.

The districtwide vote was 456-354, with the other towns voting as follows: Berwick in favor, 171-132; and North Berwick in favor, 159-109.

Last year Berwick defeated the school budget, while the districtwide vote was in favor.

MSAD 60 Superintendent Steven Connolly said today he was pleased with the outcome.

"I’m ecstatic that we can now move on," he said. 

Next year's fiscal budget which begins July 1 represents a 3.9 percent increase over last year's, but Lebanon's mil rate responsible for funding the cost actually went down slightly.

The district also overwhelmingly approved extending the current form of school budget meeting and referendum for another three years, 543-260.

Voting officials like Lebanon Town Clerk Laura Bragg lamented yesterday’s low voter turnout, but in fact, voting in Lebanon was up more than 30 percent with 239 Lebanites heading to the polls compared to last year’s 142.

Overall, only about 6 percent of the district’s voters went to the polls.