By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Cape Elizabeth residents, school and town officials are hoping a proposed $19.8 million, 5.3 percent increased budget from last year’s school budget doesn’t strike out  Sept. 2 during the third public school budget validation referendum since May. Monday night several residents spoke in favor of a higher increase in school funding, but said they were willing to live with the 5.3 percent budget in the interest of beginning the school year with approved funding.

Resident Frank Governali said he did not think a 5.3 percent increased school budget was keeping up with the demands of increasing costs and could create a “two-tiered” school system, separating students whose parents can afford private tutoring from those whose families can not afford education outside of the public school system. He also said he thought the town could solve the school funding problem by being tighter with money elsewhere. 

“Recently there was some great landscaping done right here in front of town hall,” he said. “I don’t know how much it cost, but how many textbooks could that money have bought?”

Resident and member of Cape Elizabeth’s Citizen Advocates for Public Education group David Hillman called the proposed 5.3 percent increased budget a “bare bones” option. 

“We’re talking a [property tax] difference of a $25 a year increase for the median household,” Hillman said. “If you can’t afford that, that’s what the circuit-breaker [tax relief program] is for.”

Resident Susan Spagnola said she believes Cape Elizabeth is a divided community, “all feeling the pinch of the current economy” and encouraged supporters of lowering school spending to “sit down with teachers who are asked to do more for less.”

“[A 5.3 percent budget] will not move [students] ahead, but at least it will not let them fall behind,” she said.

Hillman, Governali and Spagnola all said despite their opinions, they would support the budget at the referendum next month.

“At this point we should vote for the budget and move on,” Governali said.

Resident Michael Bowdler was alone in his opposition to the proposed 5.3 percent budget, which he said was “extortionist” in consuming 69 percent of the town’s overall budget. Bowdler said he was educated in arithmetic and geography from ages four to 14 in a school with more than 350 students, nine teachers and one headmaster.

“I think it cost each member of the community about $5 a year for their child’s education,” he said. “If we could reach those standards then, why is it taking so much money to do the same thing when you have kids until they’re 18?”

The council unanimously approved sending the 5.3 percent budget – which is $131,500 less than the 6 percent budget rejected by 44 votes June 22 for being “too high” – to a Sept. 2 public referendum. 

“I sense we’ve reached a point I hoped we would have reached much earlier in this process,” Councilor James Rowe said. “I still believe, as I did back in April, that we are one town and we want good schools, but in a way people can afford.”

Councilor Sara Lennon, who was a supporter of at least a 6 percent increase in the budget said she plans to support final approval of the budget in the voting booth, but will cast a “Too Low” vote on the advisory question asking voters if they think the budget is “Too High,” “Acceptable” or “Too Low.” 

“It is utterly clear we need to get on with our lives,” she said. “I’m not thrilled, but happy enough.”

Town Clerk Ruth Noble said absentee ballots are currently available at the town hall and through the Cape Elizabeth Web site, www.CapeElizabeth.com. She said the referendum will take place at the Cape Elizabeth High School from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 2.