There will be numerous opportunities for Woolwich residents to learn about the upcoming 2013-2014 Regional School Unit 1 education budget in the coming weeks.

The proposed budget will increase local costs by about six percent over the current year's budget, if passed.

Woolwich and West Bath will pay more in the upcoming education budget under the new cost sharing formula that was passed, 580-138, by a March 19 referendum vote.

Towns in RSU 1 (Arrowsic, Bath, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich) will share local education costs using a per-student cost sharing formula. Woolwich selectmen estimate the town will see an increase in its share of the budget of approximately $258,000 based on current year figures.

The administration prioritized what it thought it needed for resources and programming and attempted to break these priorities into a three-year cycle, realizing that they would not be able to accomplish all they would want to in one year, RSU 1 superintendent Patrick Manuel said during the most recent Board of Directors meeting March 25 in Bath.

Year one priorities included adding four special education technicians, a school resource officer at Morse High School in Bath, increased pre-Kindergarten programming, a life skills program and an additional maintenance person for the entire district.

Year two priorities will include alternative education at the middle and high school level, a district-wide behavior consultant and increased guidance services at some of the schools.

Year three priorities will include middle school health and foreign language and increased gifted and talented staff.

“We have focused a lot on the educational piece that goes to our students,” Manuel said, adding that at the same time they must also focus their attention on facilities, the maintenance, the food service and a lot of other behind the scenes operations of the school district.

What they can't control, he said, are salary and benefit adjustments and medicare seed money, totaling about $1.4 million. With these adjustments and year one priorities, the overall budget increase would be approximately 9.7 percent.

Cutting down the budget increase to six percent meant a reduction in funding for supplies and equipment and not addressing some maintenance needs in the district. It also meant not increasing the pre-Kindergarten program and not developing a life skills program that the administration feels is essential to special needs students, Manuel said.

Other first year priorities included in the proposed budget would add approximately $300,000.

There will be a second reading of the budget on Monday, May 6, during a public forum that will give the public another opportunity to weigh in on budget details. This will be followed by a district budget meeting on June 4, where residents vote on all or parts of the budget before it goes to a budget validation referendum vote on June 11.