The Hopkinton School District will try again Saturday to get a budget passed at another drive-up voting session, this time with a spending plan that won’t raise taxes.
Two weeks ago residents soundly rejected a budget increase of 4.5% in a unique voting session that included a week of online discussion and hours of ballot voting from cars at the high school. More than 1,400 people came out for the school district’s annual election, resulting in waits up an hour or more for some people, sitting in their vehicles.
Voters also rejected the proposed teachers’ contract.
Because Hopkinton School District operates under traditional town-meeting format it did not have a default budget to use if voters rejected the proposal. As a result, officials scrambled to put together a new proposal that they hope will pass muster.
The new proposed budget is $21.07 million, a decrease of $343,635, representing a cut of one cent on the local school tax rate. The reduced amount is still an increase over the district’s $20.55 million operating budget.
Drive up voting will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, at the Hopkinton Middle-High School and new measures will be taken to reduce wait times.
“Given the record turnout from the May 16th meeting, the supervisors of the checklist and their team are providing increased capacity to significantly expedite check-in and to reduce wait times,” district officials posted online.
