When it comes time for the Great Salt Bay Community School to approve its budget, its three towns (Bremen, Damariscotta and Newcastle) all give its voting residents different colored pieces of paper to vote with.

On Wednesday, May 13, all three colors were raised in favor of adopting the proposed 2015-16 budget.

Voters from Newcastle, Damariscotta and Bremen approved the Great Salt Bay budget, with only a handful of voters going against it.

The approved budget will increase by approximately 1.82 percent from the 2014-15 budget.

AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey said that while an increase was needed, special care was taken to avoid raising property taxes too much.

“There will be an increase this year, but we were savvy to the taxation needs of the towns,” Bailey said.

A large portion of the increase for this year is centered around $50,000 that's being held for potential lighting replacements, Bailey said.

“We're hoping to involve Efficiency Maine to (be a part of) our light replacement project,” he said.

But, should the lighting project fall through, the money could be used towards a boiler project.

The increase pushes the facilities budget to $530,900, which is an increase of 19 percent over fiscal year 2014-15.

Overall, the final budget is $5,588,196, which is an increase of $80,000 over last year's final number.

Another source of increases will come from in the form of reassigning teachers throughout the school. Bailey said that several teachers and education technicians will be moved around.

But a large part of the increase comes from filling faculty gaps, Bailey said. The approved budget includes a $98,800 increase in the staff and student support line, which increases it to $340,900 for the upcoming year. Last year, the line item for support was $242,100 and it was $232,200 in the 2013-14 budget.

Almost $55,000 of the $98,000 increase comes from moving a guidance counselor from the special education line to the support line. That figure includes all the added costs, such as health insurance. Another $25,000 of the increase comes from adding a full-time educational technician to the staff.

Because of the movement of staff, it created savings elsewhere, Bailey said. The special education budget will go down from 2014-15's total of $1,048,200 to $1,010,500, or approximately 3.6 percent, because of the staff changes. Another decrease in the special education budget came from a $31,000 reduction in the line to send students out of district. In 2014-15 that figure was $91,000, but the total moving forward will be $60,000.

Like the special education budget, the regular instruction budget will be reduced in 2015-16. Voters approved a $2.55 million budget, which is a decrease of $37,600 from last year's $2.88 million budget.

Teacher salaries will go up by $83,800, but that figure is almost canceled-out by the $81,000 reduction in health insurance costs. The contingency fund, which had been $57,800 in 2014-15, was removed from the 2015-16 budget.