An Act Amending the Charter of the Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District (AFTER DEADLINE)
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1753
Committee: State and Local Government
Sponsors: STOVER

Legislative Document
No. 1753
H.P. 1248
House of Representatives, May 16, 2019
An Act Amending the Charter of the Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor 
Community School District
(AFTER DEADLINE)
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
205.
Reference to the Committee on State and Local Government suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative STOVER of Boothbay.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  P&SL 1953, c. 156, §4, first ¶ is amended to read:
Sec. 4.  Referendum on bond issues.  When the trustees shall have authorized 
the issue of any bonds, an attested copy of the vote of the trustees shall must be forthwith 
filed with the municipal officers of each of the participating towns and published in a 
newspaper having a circulation in the district not later than 8 days following the day on 
which such vote was adopted by the trustees. A vote of the trustees authorizing an issue 
of bonds in the principal amount of less than $250,000 under this act shall Act does not 
become effective before the expiration of a period of 15 21 days from the date upon 
which such vote is adopted. If within said 21-day period a petition, signed by 300 
registered voters of the district not less than 100 of whom shall must be from each 
participating town, shall be is filed with the chairman or the secretary of the board of 
trustees, asking that the question of whether such bonds should be issued be submitted to 
the voters of the district, such vote of the trustees shall be is further suspended from 
becoming effective and the trustees shall immediately reconsider such vote. If such vote 
is not rescinded by the trustees, the trustees shall submit the question of whether such 
bonds shall may be issued to the voters of the district at a special meeting of the qualified 
voters in the district to be held in said district within 60 days of their vote using the same 
procedures as set forth herein for an issue of bonds in the principal amount of $250,000 
or greater under this Act.  If the trustees vote to authorize an issue of bonds in the 
principal amount of $250,000 or greater under this Act, the trustees shall submit the 
question of whether such bonds may be issued to the voters of the district at a special 
meeting of the qualified voters in the district to be held in said district within 60 days of 
their vote. Said special meeting shall must be called and held as provided in section 16 
hereof except that the notice shall must set forth the vote of the trustees authorizing said 
bonds, the approval or disapproval of the issue of which is to be submitted to the voters of 
the district, together with the proposed form of the ballot to be used at such special 
meeting. At such special meeting the vote on the question of whether such bonds shall 
may be issued shall must be by ballot, the form of which shall must be substantially as 
follows:
Sec. 2.  P&SL 1953, c. 156, §9, as amended by P&SL 1969, c. 27, §3 and P&SL 
1975, c. 28, is further amended to read:
Sec. 9.  Application of general law; certain exceptions.  The community 
schools, for which provision is herein made, when established shall be are considered the 
official schools of the participating towns to the extent consistent with action taken 
pursuant to sections 18 and 18-A and all provisions of general law relating to public 
education shall, so far as applicable, apply to said schools.  Teaching positions, special 
courses and other basis for allocations to towns because of this school, shall must be 
divided according to the porportional proportional assessment of each participating town 
for operating expenses as determined in section 13 of this act Act.  Unless a specific 
procurement method is otherwise provided for by state law, a competitive bidding 
process must be used for any procurement of the district in the amount of $20,000 or 
greater, in which bids from competing contractors, suppliers or vendors must be invited 
by openly advertising the scope, specifications and terms and conditions of the proposed 
contract as well as the criteria by which the bids will be evaluated.  Transportation of 
pupils shall must be provided by the district as provided by law and the expenditure for 
transportation shall be is considered an expense of operation of the schools. Tuition 
charges for pupils from outside the district accepted at this school shall must be 
determined by the trustees, notwithstanding other provisions in the general law; provided, 
however, except that such tuition shall may not exceed the average cost per pupil paid by 
a participating town for the year preceding the year for which the tuition is paid, as 
determined by the trustees.
Sec. 3.  P&SL 1953, c. 156, §12, 2nd sentence is amended to read:
Said voters may determine and include in said capital budget the sum, if any, to be set 
aside in the current year for a capital reserve fund; provided, however, except that the an 
amount which may up to $140,000 for a capital reserve fund must be set aside in any one 
year shall not exceed $12,500 for the 2020 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2019 to 
June 30, 2020 and is hereinafter referred to as "the base year," and, at the beginning of 
each fiscal year after the base year, each such date, hereinafter called an "increase date," 
the capital reserve fund set-aside amount for that fiscal year must be adjusted, effective 
for the fiscal year commencing on each such increase date, to an amount equal to the 
greater of: the prior year's set-aside amount or an annual amount that bears the same 
proportion to the annual set-aside amount in effect during the calendar month 
immediately preceding such increase date as the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 
Consumers, United States City Average, all items, base period 1982-84 = 100 (Not 
Seasonally Adjusted) as published by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of 
Labor Statistics, hereinafter called "the CPI Index," published for December of that fiscal 
year bears to such CPI Index as in effect for December of the preceding fiscal year.
SUMMARY
This bill amends the charter of the Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School 
District to require that bond issues in the principal amount of $250,000 or greater go to a 
referendum vote, to add a competitive bidding requirement for district procurements of 
$20,000 or greater and to remove the cap on contributions to the capital reserve fund.