Newport -
Voters in the Newport area will once again consider a loan to make up for a massive budget shortfall.
On Tuesday night, the RSU 19 school board held a public meeting at Nokomis Regional High School, to go over the plan for a proposed 2.9 million dollar loan.
Superintendent Gregory Potter gave a presentation on why the money is needed to stabilize the district’s finances.
The public had an opportunity to speak before attendees voted in favor of the loan's amount.
Now it will go to a town vote on January 15th, to decide if the loan will actually be taken out.
In November, voters in RSU 19 said no to a 3.6 million dollar loan.
This time around, they're more optimistic.
"Since then we've been able to make additional reductions in spending to the tune of about 700 thousand which brings us to about 1.6 million dollars in spending reductions and cuts this year," said Superintendent Potter.
But not all see a smaller loan as the solution.
"We're an extremely top heavy district. Instead of cutting everything inside the walls of the classroom, maybe they should look into administration costs and trying to wean themselves off the top," said Jason Gould.
When voters cast their ballot next Tuesday, the 2.9 million dollar total will not be indicated on the ballot, rather a simple “yes” or “no” on a loan in general.
This was a point of contention between the school board and the opposition on Tuesday night.
The board says the number won't appear on the ballot because they didn't want to re-print ballots if the loan amount were to change.