In a debate over additional cuts to the school budget, Windham town councilors differed on how to take another $110,000 off the tax burden before finalizing the 2008-09 budget.

In the end, by a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the council decided to take the funds from the school department’s surplus rather than cut overall spending, giving the Windham School Department more flexibility in the budget. The councilors who voted in opposition, however, said using additional surplus was a risk not worth taking.

With the council’s actions, the 2008-09 budget is set, with municipal spending at almost $30 million and the school budget at more than $14 million. Residents, who will vote on the budget at the annual town meeting Saturday, June 14, are now looking at a tax rate of $11.70, a 3.5 percent increase over the current year.

Councilor Blaine Davis began the budget review by suggesting the $110,000 cut to the school budget.

“I’d like to see that taken from administration and transportation,” Davis said. The council has authority over the school budget’s bottom line, but the School Board decides specifically where cuts are made.

Jeff Pierce, the School Board chairman, said the board cut $735,000 from the budget, going above and beyond what was requested by the council in a budget workshop a month ago. Further cuts would be damaging to education in Windham, he said.

“This budget has been thoroughly vetted already by our administration and School Board,” he said.

Windham School Department Superintendent Sandy Prince said he was not sure if there were funds to cut from the administration and transportation accounts.

“We’ve made significant cuts in those areas,” he told the council.

Tracy Butler, a Windham resident and mother of two students, said the cuts are already being felt at Manchester School, where she is a teacher.

Staff at the school were thrilled that the school was hiring an assistant principal for the coming school year, Butler said. That position has since become a casualty to budget cuts.

“I was so excited. We were moving forward,” Butler told the council. “I want you to know it’s hurting Manchester.”

Further cuts would almost certainly come from school programs, said School Board member Mary Wassick.

“That’s where we are now,” she said. The council needs to have a better understanding of where the budget can be cut before making suggestions, Wassick added.

“I think it is irresponsible at best to throw a number out there without knowing the implications of it,” she said.

Councilor John MacKinnon agreed that school spending should not be cut.

“I’m thinking you’ve gone to the edge anyway,” he said. “I can’t see making you go any further.”

But Councilor Donna Chapman said the school department needs to keep in mind that it is a tough financial year for residents, and that the budget atmosphere may improve in the next cycle.

“I think everybody will survive for one year,” she said.

The council voted 4-3 to pass Davis’s recommendation, with MacKinnon, Robert Muir and Carol Waig dissenting.

After hearing school officials decry the loss of more funding, resident David Tobin, a former councilor, suggested that the $110,000 be taken from surplus rather than a reduction in the overall budget. That way, he said, the tax burden would be reduced but the school department would still get its full budget request.

Donn Davis, the department’s finance director, said the budget proposal used $500,000 in balances carried forward from the current year, compared to $275,000 in the previous budget. There will be around $139,000 left in the carry forward balance at the start of the next budget year, he said.

The carry forward account would then have to be built up sufficiently over the next year to cover the amount in the budget, Davis said. The task would be made more difficult if $110,000 were added to the amount. Though Tobin’s proposal would give the school department a higher budget to work with over the next year, there is also a risk that the department might not save enough, Davis said.

Councilor Kaile Warren called the plan “highly speculative,” and said he would much rather decrease spending than play with the carry forward balance.

“As volatile as things are, our safest tack is to go expense side,” Warren said.

But if the funds are not in the account by the end of the next budget year, the school department will be forced to scale back spending regardless of how the council shapes the budget, Pierce argued.

“If it isn’t there, we’ll take the cut anyway,” he said.

The council voted 4-3 to take the extra funds from surplus, with Chapman, Blaine Davis and Warren dissenting.