The Leland & Gray School Board is faced with trying a new tack on a proposed fiscal year 2015 budget after voters from the district's five member towns on Feb. 5 shot down the board's nearly $7 million spending plan by Australian ballot, 132-122.
That budget called for a 2.8 percent increase over the current year's spending plan.
An Australian ballot is conducted without discussion, and was registered at each of five polling places: in Brookline, Jamaica, Newfane, Townshend, and Windham.
School Board members were left looking for public input as to why the proposal failed and what voters would support.
In December, Dorinne Dorfman, L&G principal, in collaboration with Steven John, superintendent, and Franklin Rucker, CFO, produced a budget rationale for 2014-15, which is posted at www.lelandandgray.org.
The L&G Annual Report summary notes, in part, that, “The proposed budget invests in opportunities for student growth and learning to graduate both college and career ready. Dr. Dorfman led her faculty and staff to carefully consider every detail of the proposed 2014-2015 budget.”
Another budget vote will be scheduled. State statute requires that a new budget be in place by the end of the district's fiscal year, which is June 30.