After Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor voters rejected two town referendum questions to fund an $89 million school project, one big question remains: Now what? The Community School District (CSD) Board of Trustees met Nov. 8 to confirm the results and discuss next steps. The bottom line is that it's going to take more referendums and public engagement to get the schools in good repair, according to the board. 

“We’ve got our compass bearing, and we know where were headed, which is all we wanted from the beginning,” said Board of Trustees Chair Steve Lorrain. “We're going to proceed in the way the public wants, which is to fix the buildings.” 

As reported in the Register, Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor residents voted down Question 1, to renovate the elementary-middle school building, 1266 to 1162. Voters were more decisive about Question 2, rejecting it 1688 to 718. The votes were aggregated between the towns and confirmed by the board. 

Alternative Organizational Structure 98 Superintendent Robert Kahler said he was pleased to see the amount of participation for the recent vote, noting long lines at the Boothbay town hall. Kahler also thanked the around dozen residents who were at the meeting, one of the best attended board meetings in the past sixth months. He said it is critical to have that level of participation to find solutions.  

“It really is going to need to be a community conversation to solve these issues and what the long-term picture for the community is,” he said. “It's bigger than the schools, but schools are certainly a huge part of it.”   

At the meeting, members of the public spoke to thank the board members and other school officials for their work on the project. They also offered their thoughts on why the public voted down the questions including misconceptions among residents, a need for door-to-door informational campaigns and, of course, the tax burden. Both residents and board members acknowledged taxes will increase no matter the referendum’s outcome, and they discussed potential next steps to get voter buy in.  

“I feel the vote that we saw represents people wanting us to concentrate on the needs versus wants because I think some of the project was wants and desires, and this community is looking at fewer students and higher taxes,” said Boothbay Harbor resident Jane Wallace. “But I certainly look forward to the future plans that come through from this group.” 

The board talked about hosting several workshops to discuss repairs and did not reject ideas to return to voters with leaner proposals for the two schools. Kahler said there is over $400,000 remaining from donations in 2021 given to explore the projects. These funds could be used to continue conversations with architects at Lavallee Brensinger to discuss changing the renovation plans or phasing repairs, according to Kahler and Lorrain. In addition, Kahler said the district will continue long-term philanthropy efforts to ease the financial burden on taxpayers.

According to the CSD, the Boothbay region elementary-middle and high school needs around $38 million in repairs, most of which need to be done in five years. These include several hundred thousand dollars to repair the dry sprinkler system at the elementary-middle school, repairs on the school’s roof, and a potential $300,000 security entrance at the high school.  

Lorrain said many repairs are more than $250,000, the threshold for referendum approval as stated in the new CSD charter enacted in October. He said the trustees will likely combine repairs into referendums with multiple questions as projects move forward. However, the process will involve a significant amount of public input, including legally required public hearings.  

According to board members, the number of issues brought up may be eye opening for members of the public, and the referendum process is going to educate people in its own way. Ultimately, board members said they want to capture the momentum of the last few months as they move forward.

“I'm glad that we got people's attention. It took a really big number to do that, but you saw what we had in the room tonight. And if we could just keep building on that, we're further ahead. And the conversations are going to be uncomfortable, there's no doubt about it ...,” said Lorrain. “I think now we are engaged. We might as well keep churning straight ahead.”