School district 11 voters reject second budget at referendum
Voters in regional school district 11 defeated a second budget proposal for 2025-2026.
The budget of $7,330,553 was rejected by a vote of 281 in opposition to 257 in favor. The regional budget includes the operation of the Parish Hill Middle/High School and tuition and transportation for outsourced programming.
One town in the district actually had a majority in favor of the budget, but not a significant enough number to offset the defeat in both of the other two towns. Scotland residents supported the budget by a 51 in favor to 44 against. Chaplin, however, turned down the budget down with 144 voters opposed to it, and 114 accepting it. Hampton very narrowly defeated the budget, by a vote of 93 against to 92 for it.
This second budget represented an increase of 2.88% over the 2024-2025 approved budget of $7,125,171.
The original budget proposal for 2025-2026, with a bottom line of $7,386,184, was rejected by voters at a district-wide referendum held on May 6. Chaplin voters denied passage by 349 to 217; Hampton shot it down by 162 to 104; and Scotland residents narrowly defeated it by 47 to 37. Before sending the revised bottom line to voters at the second vote, regional school district 11 school board members changed the administrative structure to streamline the budget and eliminated under-enrolled sports programs.
'We are frustrated the budget did not pass, especially in that any budget failure harms children and families,' regional school district 11 Superintendent Andrew Skarzynski said. 'We have already put forth a very conservative budget that is significantly lower than the state average, including the elimination of a school administrator position.'
The board of education will now draft a third budget proposal for another referendum vote this summer.
'We will attempt to identify any further cost savings, including those areas not previously reduced, and produce another budget,' Skarzynski said.
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