When it comes to the Twin Villages and the secondary school budget, Newcastle appears to be getting the lower end of the increases.

But the budget is still proposed to go up.

Steve Bailey, AOS 93 Superintendent, spoke with the Newcastle board of selectmen Monday, April 27 about the proposed 2015-16 secondary school budget.

Like Damariscotta, Newcastle will be seeing a substantial increase in its budget, should voters approve it May 13.

“Last year was a very tight budget,” he said. “We're in better shape this year, but we do have an increase in the private tuition line.”

Bailey said that beyond the private tuition line, which is mostly paid for the 57 current Newcastle students at Lincoln Academy, there aren't too many increases in the budget.

Most of the increase stems from the instruction line in the budget. The 2014-15 secondary school budget had $737,000 for regular instruction, while the proposed 2015-16 budget is requesting $911,000 which is an increase of $170,000 or approximately 16 percent. The largest single line increase in the budget was for secondary private instruction, which would increase by $147,000 in the proposed budget.

The secondary public tuition line would also increase in the proposed budget: from nothing in 2014-15 to $20,679, as some students will attend schools such as Wiscasset in the fall, Bailey said.

Other increases include a 12.8 percent hike in the transportation budget, or $10,330 from the 2014-15 budget. Most of that increase comes from special services transportation, which went from $20,000 in the current year's budget, to $25,000 in the proposed budget.

Like Newcastle, Damariscotta is also likely to see an increase this year. According to a proposed budget shown to the Damariscotta board of selectmen in March, there would be a jump of approximately $295,000 in the secondary school budget.

Most of Damariscotta's increase would come from special education increases; the current Damariscotta budget for regular education is $926,000 and the proposed 2015-16 budget is $1.15 million. Of the current budget, $199,000 is spent on special education while in the proposed budget that number would increase to $281,000.

Newcastle selectman Pat Hudson voiced her concern with the increasing cost of education.

“People are concerned about high taxes,” she said. “We work hard to keep (the municipal budget) in line, so it's hard to hear that this year (the school budget) is going up 16 percent.”