By Muriel Bristol | March 21, 2021
Milton’s School District election of Tuesday, March 9, 2021, was quite lightly attended – only 638 participants – despite its being a clear day. (Ed.: This turnout would be only about 20% of the registered voters).
The Milton School District does not entitle its articles as does the Town. The titles employed below have been drawn from the text of the articles.
.Article 1: School Board Election. Abigail Rooney and incumbent Douglas H. Shute won the two three-year seats on the School Board with 202 votes (31.7%) and 190 votes (29.8%) respectively. The other four candidates were Travis J. Corriveau, with 185 votes (29.0%), Lynette McDougall, with 170 votes (26.6%), John Gagner, with 161 votes (25.2%), and Donald C. Diamant, Jr., with 124 votes (19.4%). There was also 1 “Scattering” write-in vote (0.2%) for Kenneth Tucker.
(Ed.: Abigail Rooney replaced outgoing board member Paul Steer, who ran instead for the Planning Board in the Town election).
Results of the following outside warrant articles have been arranged by their vote counts.
Article 6: Building Maintenance, Repair, Renovation and Capital Project Reserve Fund. This article passed with 451 votes (70.7%) in favor, 153 votes (24.0%) opposed, and 34 abstentions (5.3%).
Article 5: Educationally Disabled Children Expendable Trust Fund. This article passed with 449 votes (70.4%) in favor, 152 votes (23.8%) opposed, and 37 abstentions (5.8%).
Article 7: School Bus Trust Fund. This article passed with 442 votes (69.3%) in favor, 158 votes (24.8%) opposed, and 38 abstentions (6.0%).
Article 8: Technology Expendable Trust Fund. This article passed with 432 votes (67.7%) in favor, 166 votes (26.0%) opposed, and 40 abstentions (6.3%).
Article 2: Operating Budget. This article passed with 397 votes (62.2%) in favor, 200 votes (31.3%) opposed, and 41 abstentions (6.4%).
(Ed.: The School Board shared generally the Board of Selectmen’s group-think approach. They managed to “achieve” a unanimous 5-0 vote recommending all of their spending articles, excepting only this operating budget article, which was recommended by only a 3-2 vote. The School Board had been advised strongly by the Budget Committee to devise a proposed budget that was lower than the default budget (as was done with the Town operating budget). It would seem that two members just could not bring themselves to recommend a budget that did not increase over the default budget).
Article 4: Library Media Fund. This article passed with 383 votes (60.0%) in favor, 219 votes (34.3%) opposed, and 36 abstentions (5.6%).
Article 3: Vehicle Capital Reserve Fund. This article passed with 364 votes (57.1%) in favor, 231 votes (36.2%) opposed, and 43 abstentions (6.7%).
See School District Election Results for March 10, 2020 and School District Election Results for March 12, 2019. (See also Town Election Results for March 9, 2021)
Milton Observer 