HARPSWELL — After keeping the total local contribution paid by the four towns in School Administrative District 75 flat for three years, the district’s Finance Committeeproposesa1percent total contribution increase in the 2012-13 budget.

The proposed $ 33,402,454 budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 represents a 2.4 percent overall decrease from the current budget. The 2012-13 budget reflects a $356,865 decrease in state subsidy; $30,000 less in federal impact aid for students from military families; and the elimination of $ 409,423 in federal jobs money.

The proposed budget also would take $200,000 less from the fund balance to decrease the district’s reliance on savings to balance the budget. Additionally, the district has already negotiated salary increases totaling more than $403,000.

During the first of three scheduled public forums on the proposed budget, Superintendent Brad Smith said Thursday that SAD 75 needed to find almost $1.3 million in reductions to keep the total contributions paid by Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham the same for a fourth year, at just more than $18.7 million.

The Finance Committee agreed to $ 1.1 million in reductions in personnel, programs and services.

“But when it came time to look at those final amounts to get the budget so (the local contribution) would be flat, it couldn’t do it,” Smith said. “The cost was too great to try to hold us to that line.”

“Eighty percent of our budget is personnel,” Smith said. “Salaries and benefits, along with insurance, are 79 percent of all of the money in the district.”

The district must look at these costs when facing significant reductions, he said.

The proposed $1.1 million in cuts represents the equivalent of 4.5 teaching positions at the high school; 2.9 teachers at the middle school; 3.8 teachers at the elementary schools; 1.4 special services teachers; and 13 positions and reduced hours and days for support staff. It also includes $101,450 in additional department cuts.

For the fourth year in a row the district will see decreased revenue, decreased enrollment and decreased staff, Smith said.

“We recognize that the price of these and the severity and the complexity of the needs of those students with special education is increasing and requires more support, not less,” he said.

The 48-minute budget forum drew only four people to the microphone to comment Thursday, all sympathetic with the challenging job Finance Committee members have.

The first speaker, Jim Byrne of Topsham, said he’s seen the school board “pull a rabbit out of a hat every year and just do some magic with the numbers.”

Referring to state government’s failure to abide by a June 2004 referendum in which Maine voters mandated that the state fund 55 percent of the total cost of K-12 public education and 100 percent of special education costs, Byrne said, “I personally feel that the state has basically passed off some of the financing responsibilities to the local towns.”

He said “these cuts are really starting to hurt education,” and suggested that the community bears a responsibility to educate its children. “You just can’t keep cutting like this. I want the Finance Committee to really take another look at this.”

Patricia McGovern, a nurse at Mt. Ararat Middle School, spoke in favor of keeping a 0.4-time nurse, given the demand for those services. She counted 1,837 nursing visits this year.

“I think it would be really beneficial for you to consider keeping in the 0.4 position to assist in the middle school, because you are really running,” she said.

Tricia Gordon, who works at Mt. Ararat High School, asked the board several questions about the proposed budget, including state funding.

Gordon and Byrne also spoke on behalf of keeping an art position at the secondary school level. They questioned if 1.5 art teachers at the middle school would be enough for 613 students.

Under the proposed budget, Bowdoin’s share would increase $136,573 (6.54 percent); Bowdoinham’s would go up by $115,225 (4.93 percent); and Harpswell would pay $ 185,075 (2.85 percent) more. Topsham’s share would decrease by $ 249,715 or 3.2 percent.

Budget forums are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Bowdoin Central School and 6: 30 p. m. Thursday at Williams-Cone School in Topsham.

dmoore@!timesrecord.com