MACHIASPORT — Residents approved full funding of proposed municipal and school budgets at the annual town meeting on Monday, amid contention over rising property taxes and the cost of education.
Betsy Fitzgerald, who serves as the town’s code enforcement officer, moderated the meeting, which consisted of 42 articles and two board-member elections, for School Board and Select Board, respectively.
The request to fund $1,010,508 for regular instruction for the 2026-27 school year passed without discussion.
The next article — for the town’s share of special education appropriations — drew discussion from Chris Meroff, Machisport resident and owner of West Branch Farms, who asked how many students were educated for the total requested amount of $461,945.
School Superintendent Nicole Case, who is not a resident of Machiasport, was authorized to speak at the meeting to answer questions, a required process for all non-residents. She said a total of 31 students benefit from special education in AOS 96, which is the Machias Bay Area School System, which breaks out to 23 elementary students and eight high school students.
Case said the budget figure includes “speech services, special services and full-time aides,” that work with students, one-on-one, throughout the entire school day, in some cases.
The motion carried, but not without dissent from a small but consistent group, including Meroff, who also sometimes abstained from voting throughout the meeting, along with Carmine and Christine DeFalco.
Christine DeFalco was asked for comment on why she opposed the budget, and declined.
Case then answered a question about how many Machiasport students are enrolled in local schools — a total of 72 students, she said — which doesn’t include homeschooled children who don’t impact the budget. She added 41 students are expected to attend Fort O’Brien School in Machiasport next year.
When asked by a resident what measures the school will take to ensure new Machiasport parents of school-aged children send their kids to the town’s school, Case said the School Board is in support of asking parents to visit Fort O’Brien Elementary for potential enrollment of their student before deciding on a school.
On the topic of school closure and consolidation, Case said, “Nobody says it out loud, but if you close your school all of the students that have superintendents’ agreements (to go to other schools), instead of going to school on their parents gas, they’re now going for thousands of dollars” for transportation and student tuition.
She explained that if a town doesn’t have a school in the district and children become tuition students, the town is responsible for transportation for all students who participate in school choice. She also said that consolidation means that the town has less control over the future of students because they’d be sharing that control with residents of other towns involved in downsizing for consolidated schooling.
The topic sparked debate between residents concerned with climbing property taxes, and those who see the school as an asset and closing it as a potential expense and long-term logistical issues for parents and students displaced by what one resident said at the meeting would be an irreversible decision to solve a short-term problem.
West Branch Farms’ Meroff, who said he was involved in the state-wide initiative to consolidate schools years ago, said “we already sold our soul to the devil by accepting state and federal money,” and called the amount of the school board total budget appropriation of over $1 million “obscene” for the amount of enrolled students from a “purely fiscal perspective.”
Frank Rodriguez, who is a member of the School Board, said “I understand where you’re coming from with the dollar piece, but that is strictly a policy issue. We’re not going to solve that here in this discussion. This discussion is about the budget. It’s about getting the school funded next year.”
Ultimately, residents passed the total school budget. The town agreed to appropriate $1,138,440 for the cost of public education from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 in accordance with the Essential Programs and Services Funding Act, and to raise an additional $877,850 for the town’s contribution of total education costs. The town also voted to raise and appropriate $655,548 in local funds required to fund the School Board’s proposed budget.
Among other large appropriations was the Washington County tax assessment, which the town voted to raise and appropriate in the amount of $420,104. The rest of the municipal budget passed without issue.
Serena Wood was reelected to the School Board, and Ryan Maker retained his seat as Select Board Chair.
