Chilmark deciding vote on school budget tonight

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MVRHS Principal Sara Dingledy spoke in support of the budget before a concerned crowd during town meeting in April. — Dena Porter

Chilmark will be the first among the up-Island towns to vote on the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) budget when it convenes tonight.

The Chilmark Special Town Meeting will be held at the Chilmark Community Center Monday, June 5, at 7 pm. Voters will have 10 warrant articles to consider during the meeting. 

Among the warrant articles, the most consequential will be the vote for the school budget. In April, Chilmark voters rejected funding its $993,112 share of the high school budget over the athletics field litigation between MVRHS and the Oak Bluffs planning board. If voters approve the budget, the high school will have met the four-town threshold needed for the budget to move forward. 

If voters do not approve the budget, its advancement will depend on the decision of West Tisbury and Aquinnah voters. Special town meetings at those two towns will be held later this month.

Alongside the budget, there will be two citizen petitions. The first is a nonbinding resolution asking for MVRHS to commit to an all-grass campus; the other asks that the high school receive no anonymous donations above $5,000 for “legal action, experts, project design, and permitting related to any and all plastic fields on the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School campus.”

Another warrant article Chilmark will vote on is whether to allow “the delivery of marijuana, marijuana products, marijuana accessories, and marijuana establishment–branded goods” in the up-Island town. Marijuana dispensaries Island Time and Fine Fettle approached the Chilmark Select Board asking to provide the marijuana delivery service earlier this year. 

Other warrant articles include the purchase of a new ambulance, and appropriating $40,000 to create a full-time building inspector position. 

The warrant article is available on the town website.