For the second time, Hodgdon voters said “No” to the 2025-2026 school budget.
The revised $7.7 million budget failed by 12 votes, 248 to 236, said Superintendent Tyler Putnam.
“Similar to last time, I will be working with the finance committee to present a new budget to the full board as the district’s next step,” Putnam said on Friday.
MSAD 70 is one of several Maine school districts facing failed budget votes. Aroostook County’s RSU 39 is also on a third budget revision after the majority of Caribou voters rejected it 449 to 262.
For several years, the Hodgdon School District budgets passed with minor increases, if any. But with increasing costs and lower state allocations, the Aroostook County district was forced to increase its budget this year, Putnam said in a previous interview.
But when the school board approved a $981,541 increase over last year in May, resident concerns led school officials to decrease that number by $250,843. Still, that was not enough and a June referendum vote rejected the district’s proposed $7.9 million budget by more than 200 votes.
District officials again revisited the financial plan for the upcoming school year with Putnam drafting a new budget that cut five positions and other non-personnel costs. The revised budget dropped the initial increase by $529,482, or 54 percent, and lowered the proposed increase to $452,059 from $981,541.
In late July, voters from the towns of Amity, Haynesville, Hodgdon, Linneus, Ludlow and New Limerick approved adding $68,000 back into the budget for system administration during a budget review meeting and vote. The 100 or so voters at the meeting passed the revised $7.7 million budget despite attempts by some voters to make additional cuts.
During the budget review meeting, voter Sheila Murchie proposed a motion that would have lowered the additional local of $1.06 million to $800,000.
Her proposed amendment would have cut an additional $262,733 from an already bare bones budget that included 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.
Murchie’s motion ultimately failed.
At the time, Putnam, who serves 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, will really hurt the district going forward,” he said.
