HODGDON, Maine — The Hodgdon School District’s revised 2025-2026 $7.7 million budget passed on Thursday night despite attempts by some voters to make additional cuts, meaning it will next go to a referendum vote that’s set for Aug. 7.
Following a June referendum vote rejecting the district’s proposed $7.9 million budget by more than 200 votes, MSAD 70 school officials drafted a new budget that cut five positions and other non-personnel costs.
In May, the MSAD 70 school board had approved a fiscal year 2025-2026 district budget with a $981,541 increase. But resident concerns led school officials to decrease that number by $250,843.
When the majority of district voters from the towns of Amity, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Linneus, Ludlow and New Limerick did not approve the budget, even with a quarter of a million dollar reduction, district officials drafted another, cutting an additional $278,639.
That dropped the initial increase by $529,482, or 54 percent, lowering the proposed increase to $452,059 from $981,541. Additionally, during Thursday’s meeting, voters approved adding $68,000 back into Article 6 for system administration.
Nonetheless, some of the 100 voters present at Thursday night’s meeting pushed for additional cuts. One man repeatedly challenged $35,000 in proposed information technology expenditures for new software and hardware to replace very old technology.
Another voter, Sheila Murchie, proposed a motion that would have amended Article 13, lowering the additional local of $1.06 million to $800,000, although it ultimately failed.
Murchie’s proposed amendment would have cut an additional $262,733 from the already bare bones budget that includes the elimination of the executive assistant to the superintendent; a data input coordinator; a director of maintenance and transportation; a home school coordinator; and an educational technician for special education as well as $29,063 from non-personnel cost centers.
When school officials asked Murchie where the additional money could come from, she said she had been working on the numbers for days and days and there were still places in the budget to cut, pointing to salaries for unfilled positions such as director of special education.
Superintendent Tyler Putnam, who works as both principal and superintendent because of staffing shortages, cautioned voters against too many cuts. When salaries for unfilled positions are not in the budget for the coming school year, it is harder to hire, he said.
“Making those calls to save a few thousand dollars now tonight, will really hurt the district going forward,” he said.
“As principal are you taking a 22 percent raise this year?” Murchie asked Putnam.
“No, I’m not taking anything,” he said.
Murchie’s amendment failed 63 to 25 in a write-in ballot vote. She then asked to amend her amendment to $868,000 in additional local, with that amendment failing in a 63 to 25 vote.
