All articles on the Mason School District ballot passed by comfortable margins at the polls on Tuesday, including an open enrollment policy for the district.
There were four offices on the ballot this year. Incumbents Rebecca Partridge and Dotsie Millbrant retained their roles as the district clerk and district moderator, respectively, after running for re-election unopposed. Partridge received 177 votes, and Millbrandt 185.
The School Board elected two new members to its ranks to fill the outgoing seats of Nathan Choquette and Tim Leak, both of whom did not run for re-election this year. Jason Iannuzzo and Logan Woods received 159 votes and 144 votes, respectively, for the two available seats.
In the closest vote of the day, voters supported the proposed budget, set at $4.22 million, by a more than 2-1 ratio, with 139 in support and 60 against. Had voters failed the budget, the default budget would have been $4.19 million.
Reserve funds were also supported. Voters approved 149-50 the use of $45,000 for the educationally disabled children reserve, 136-40 for $20,000 for the school building and grounds maintenance reserve, and $50,000 for the tuition capital reserve. All three amounts will come from the unreserved fund balance, or unspent funds, at the end of the fiscal year in July.
The district also approved the adoption of an open enrollment policy, which would require the district to pay tuition for students to attend public schools outside of the Mason School District or the Milford School District, where Mason middle and high schoolers typically attend.
The policy would allow up to 1% of Mason Elementary Students to attend public schools outside of Mason, and 10% of students in the middle and high school to attend a public school other than Milford. The district would accept up to 5% of its student body to be made up of students from other districts who wish to attend Mason Elementary.