BELFAST - Voters from the eight towns of Regional School Unit 20 on Thursday added almost $1 million back into the district's proposed 2013-14 budget in an attempt to restore staff positions and program funding the school board had slated for elimination.

Without the amendments, the draft budget — a lose-lose compromise drawn up in response to dwindling state aid and the loss of Frankfort from the district — would not have negated a tax increase. The bottom line approved on Wednesday will hit taxpayers even harder, but the majority of the 300 people who sat through the often heated four-hour meeting at Troy Howard Middle School thought it was worth it.

The public budget meeting is the second of three steps in approving the district's budget for the coming year — the final step is a single-question referendum to be held on June 11. The town meeting-style format on Wednesday night allowed for show-of-hands votes on the 11 areas of district budget, any of which could be modified by amendment.

The majority of discussion focused on three articles, the first of which included $812,890 in proposed cuts, the majority of which would have come from the elimination of six full-time and two part time positions. Residents spoke out strongly in favor of art teachers, who comprised a large part of the list, and also in support of the district's school resource officer (a Belfast police officer who works in the schools). 

Speaking to the cuts at Troy Howard Middle School, which would effectively eliminate the visual art program, Alicia Berube, a fifth grader at Edna Drinkwater Elementary School in Northport, said a school without art is not one she would want to go to. Under the current system Berube would attend THMS next year.

"Art is the subject that makes all the other subjects interesting," she said. Berube went on to extend her initial sentiment, saying a world without art "is not a world I'd want to live in."

Lorna Crichton of Waterfall Arts and Kimberly Callas of the Belfast Creative Coalition spoke to art's larger role in the community and economy and several recent graduates of Belfast Area High School spoke on the importance of art programs in their own education.

Belfast Police Chief Michael McFadden recalled his experience as detective with the police department prior to the institution of the the school resource officer, including a high-profile case involving students who committed arson and brought weapons to school. McFadden contrasted the "reactive" approach of those days with the "proactive" work of the SRO, whose work during the last five years he credited with a drop in the number of incidents at schools. 

Residents approved a motion by Belfast City Councilor Eric Sanders to reinstate $500,000 to that portion of the budget. The figure, he said, was roughly based on the amount necessary to restore the SRO, teaching positions and middle school teacher leader stipends.

Several voiced objections based on an increase in property taxes. Belfast resident Christopher Hyk, noted that the increase would contribute to a tax hike in Belfast of almost 30 percent over a period of two years.

Searsmont Town Clerk Kathy Hoey noted "a real disparity" between the average salary of residents in her town and the average teacher's salary. Hoey said her town's share of the district's budget had gone from $880,000 to $2.2 million. A large part of that increase was due to a spike in the state's assessment of the town last year.

A number of speakers drew applause from attendants, but the loudest by far came in response to a plea from Amy Fradel of Belfast who invoked the role of the state in RSU 20's budget dilemma. 

"We're arguing among ourselves about how this money is going to be spent, but we're arguing with the wrong people," she said. "Who we need to be arguing with is the state government." 

Fradel said residents should vote in favor of the amended budget then vote "with our feet" to remove state representatives who have contributed or failed to change the funding system that has pushed school district funding to the local level.

Residents added $72,436 to an article relating to extra curricular activities. The number corresponded to a board recommendation to cut 100-percent of middle school extra- and co-curricular stipends.

Additionally, residents put $202,459 back into a "cost center" related to support staff with the intent of restoring three full-time and one part-time library ed tech positions that were set to be cut, and added $81,115 to restore secretarial positions at two schools.

In total the restorations raised the district's bottom line from the amount of $33,486,606 passed by the school board to $34,342,616.

A minority of voters on hand for Wednesday night's meeting saw the increases to local property taxes as unreasonable and urged for fiscal restraint.

Among them was Stockton Springs Town Manager Rich Couch, who said the his town's contribution to the district represents 73-percent of residents' tax bills. Couch spoke after the vote on the additional $500,000 to restore art teachers, the SRO and other positions, which he said would require the town to find another $50,000 in an already bare bones municipal budget in which he mows the grass on town property as part of his job.

Couch said Stockton Springs is already carrying a substantial debt of unpaid taxes that is leading to leins and foreclosures.

"Where do we make those cuts?" he asked.

Some, like Paula Johnson of Belfast, acknowledged the immediate hardship of the tax increase but said cuts to education would create much larger, and more expensive, problems down the road. 

"You will pay, but your mill rate will be paying for jail," she said. "It will be paying for people to get off drugs. If you don't believe me, look at the statistics."

Denise Pendleton of Belfast, who spoke in favor of restoring money for sports stipends, did just that, noting the difference between the roughly $10,000 annual per pupil cost for education and the $53,000 for adult incarceration or the $146,000 for juvenille detention.

Most of the individual votes on increases to the budget's "cost centers" passed by a margin of roughly 2-1.

Voters approved the roughly $5 million "additional local share" portion of the total, which included previously approved increases but only after an apparent last ditch attempt by opponents to defeat the additions to the budget.

Kathy Hoey motioned for the final vote, but instead of including the revised figures, she asked attendants to vote on the board's original total. The motion was seconded by Searsmont school board member Valerie Mank after which it proceeeded without discussion.

Voters had been given a single written ballot, many of which had been left on seats or bleachers as the crowd thinned later in the evening. The ostensibly backward vote seemed to cause some confusion, but the motion to approve the unrevised budget was rejected by a vote of 122-48.

Voters were given new ballots and asked to vote on the revised amount by lining up on one side of the gymnasium and filing past the ballot box, out of the building, and back in through another door, presumably to avoid multiple votes. The final tally on the revised budget was 114-41. 

Longtime budget meeting moderator Lee Woodward said Hoey's motion was not something he had seen before. Earlier he had remarked at the size of the crowd, noting that he'd seen a larger turnout once before.

Four hours later, after the meeting was adjourned he referred to that larger event, held during a budget crisis in Belfast several years back, which drew 990 people. To his surprise, he said, this one was harder, largely because of the disorder surrounding the final vote.

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Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com