WINDHAM – The Windham-Raymond Regional School Unit 14 Board approved a 2.75 percent increase for the upcoming year’s school budget at its meeting last week.

The public will get a chance to comment at a public hearing June 1 at 6:30 p.m. at Windham High School. The budget then goes to voters for a district-wide referendum on Tuesday, June 14.

The school board whittled about $100,000 from the $38.09 million budget presented by Superintendent Sandy Prince last month. The reduction, which brings the final figure to $37.96 million, factors in forecasted savings by offering early retirement incentives to teachers. Told they had until July 1 to take advantage of the early retirement program, 12 teachers have already come forward expressing interest, School Board Chairman Mike Duffy said.

While the early retirements would reduce teacher salaries in the system, since new hires would be paid at a lesser pay scale, Duffy said the payouts are a “mixed blessing.”

“It’s both good and bad,” Duffy said. “We hate to lose experienced teachers, but we look forward to the new teachers with their talents and new ideas.”

Duffy said the budget “held the line” considering the district lost more than a million dollars in federal funding compared to last year’s budget and agreed to a 2 percent salary increase with the teacher’s union. The state subsidy for the district is $180,000 less than last year as well.

“I think we did a pretty good job keeping all the plates spinning,” Duffy said.

Of the 3,800 students in the district, about 450 come from Raymond. As a result of how state subsidy is calculated, Raymond taxpayers, like last year, will end up seeing a total decrease of $31,000 should the school budget receive voter approval. Windham taxpayers will see an increase of 43 cents per thousand of valuation. For a $200,000 home in Windham, taxpayers can expect an $85.40 hike to cover the increase.

Duffy was quick to say Windham taxpayers are “getting as good deal, too,” from the 2008 consolidation, since Raymond taxpayers are helping to pay off the debt on the $33 million high school, which Windham voters approved in 2003. Raymond also pays 45 percent of the adult education program costs as well.

Since the budget validation process has changed since consolidation, the school budget isn’t discussed at the annual town meetings. Instead, voters either approve or reject the school board’s recommendations at the ballot box. Duffy said if the budget is rejected, the budget goes back to the school board for review and then back to voters until a new budget is eventually approved. The current year’s budget, he added, is in effect until a new budget is approved.