Ellsworth Sees Few Voters As School Budget Is Voted Down

Ellsworth residents had the chance to vote Tuesday on whether to approve the school budget for the coming year. But the results show that only a few residents turned out at the polls.

The final voter decision was not to approve the school budget for this year that the City Council approved at its meeting on May 18th. But the amount of voters who didn't show up to voice their opinions was surprising.

There are 5534 registered voters in the city of Ellsworth. 211 people turned out at the polls to vote yesterday, while 23 cast absentee ballots, for a total of 234 votes cast. That's only 4% of the number of registered voters.

With the start of the fiscal year just a month away, that leaves the school system without an approved budget. And the rejection of the $19.9 million proposed budget makes Ellsworth the only school system in Ellsworth to reject its budget on Tuesday.

Superintendent of Schools Dan Higgins told us that administrators are back at work today, looking for ways to cut the originally proposed budget. They will come up with a new proposal that will be presented to the school board, the City Council, and will then need to be approved by voters. Higgins said he's confident all that can be accomplished in the next 30 days.