South Kingstown Election 2023: Voters Reject Cutting School Budget

SOUTH KINGSTOWN RI — South Kingstown residents on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly against a referendum that would have cut the town's public school budget, according to unofficial results.

The referendum, organized by resident Dorald Beasley, called for reducing the town's property tax transfer to the school budget by $1.5 million.

But town and school officials said reducing the budget would have had consequences for students, including eliminating fall high school sports, elementary school music programs and teachers and coaches getting laid off. Town voters ultimately sided with the original school budget supporting it 4,604 votes to 1,228, according to unofficial results.

"I'm psyched that the community really showed up," Town Council President Rory McEntee said. "The results speak to what the community values. Some kids need sports. They need extracurriculars to be motivated in class."

Beasley and others supporting the referendum said it would have benefited taxpayers.

"It’s high time our elected leaders stop treating taxpayers like so many cash cows," Beasley wrote in an op-ed on Patch. "If the town council and school committee would work together and craft a plan to get our student-to-FTE (full-time educator) ratio to 7.0:1 by the day the new SKHS (South Kingstown High School) on School Street opens its doors, the accrued savings would offset most if not all of the projected tax rate increases from our $125 million bonded debt. That’s a win-win in my book and would make this the first and last referendum you’ll see."