Wiscasset residents on May 14 will have their chance to alter the $9.4 million school budget or let it ride.

Going in to the special town meeting, the budget offer would spike the tab the town pays for education, and potentially raise property taxes by nearly one-quarter of their current level.

The budget that comes out of the 6 p.m. meeting at Wiscasset High School will be the one that goes to the polls on June 10.

The committee passed the proposed budget 4-1 on May 1; Sharon Nichols dissented.

She voted against the proposal for the same reason she is resigning from the committee, Nichols said afterward: She can't support a three-school budget. Nichols had urged for consolidation to two schools in year one of the school system.

With state aid and tuition figured in, the school committee's proposal would cost taxpayers about $6.9 million, Interim Superintendent Wayne Dorr said.

For the 2013-2014 budget year, the last one inside Regional School Unit 12, Wiscasset's tab totaled $5.1 million, according to town and district officials.

That puts this year's hike at about $1.8 million, barring any changes at the special town meeting. If town and county costs and Wiscasset's taxable valuation all held about flat this year, an education hike that size would increase the tax rate from its current $16.20 to about $20 for every thousand dollars of a property's assessed valuation.

Those attending the special town meeting have the option to vote the budget higher or lower, piece by piece including one of the more contentious items, adult education.

Plans call for offering a high school completion program, at a cost of $10,000. The district's adult education program in Wiscasset was larger, including enrichment and other classes.

Opposition to adult education's downsizing dominated public comment at an April 14 budget hearing; some of May 1's meeting-goers also raised concerns about the cuts.

School committee members have said the town cannot afford an adult education program as big as the one the district provided.