In a very close vote, the Special Town Meeting voted to approve the B-R School District’s budget request. As of right now $1.495 million is officially allocated from the Town to the School District. An upcoming Special Town Meeting will decide where the cuts will be made in order to fund the allocation and whether another override vote should be held. The vote totals are as follows:
Yes: 1,082
No: 1,006
Total: 2,088
Other than the vote, it was interesting that the Town was not prepared to handle the number of people who turned out. As a result, we were forced to have a vote without any discussion. It is unfortunate that the vote cast by 53% of the voters at the ballot box is not binding, but the vote cast by far less than half that number on a weekday evening is binding.