WESTBROOK – The Westbrook School Department is finishing up its second most difficult budget season in recent years, and once again school officials will need layoffs and an increase in the tax burden in order to balance the books against plummeting state and federal aid to the city.

The final version of the district’s 2013 budget followed a whirlwind of last-minute changes by the finance committee at its March 28 meeting, ending with a figure of $30.9 million. After factoring in state and federal education revenues, which fell sharply for the second year in a row, the district’s proposed budget stands at an increase of $271,000, or less than 1 percent, compared to the current budget, according to School Superintendent Marc Gousse.

The budget needs to go before a School Committee public hearing on Wednesday, April 4, at 6 p.m., after the American Journal’s deadline, before the committee makes its decision. A second reading on the budget is slated for April 11.

After the school committee approves the 2013 budget, the City Council is expected to get its first crack at it at a first reading planned for April 23. The budget then has to pass a referendum in June. If approved, the proposed budget would require the owner of a $190,000 home to pay an extra $64.75 annually, or about $5.40 more per month, Gousse said.

The City Council is also working on the $23.2 million municipal budget, which could call for a tax increase of 8 cents, based in part on a change in valuation citywide brought on by state law. The council’s vote will be on a combined municipal and school budget.

While final school numbers could require a tax hike, members of the School Committee noted last week that the district began the process with a deficit of more than $2 million, and has been working since last summer on cuts that closed the gap by nearly 90 percent.

Those cuts included closing Prides Corner Elementary School and reconfiguring the district to make the remaining three elementary schools – Congin, Canal and Saccarappa – K-4 schools, while fifth-graders will go to Westbrook Middle School. The move, school officials said, shaved $500,000 off the 2013 budget, and made sure that the district and taxpayers would not have to shell out millions more for costly repairs and needed maintenance and upgrades.

The district also proposed a number of cuts in personnel. In some cases, the cuts involved removing positions entirely, while in others it meant scaling back existing positions from full to part time.

Among the positions were a math teacher and one of the district’s guidance counselors, but the committee voted last week to put them back into the budget.

The guidance counselor position, one of four spread out throughout the elementary schools, generated much of the debate at last week’s meeting. Many of the committee members said they were concerned that the students would not get the support they needed if they lost the extra counselor.

“I really think this guidance (counselor) is a ‘need to have,’ not a ‘nice to have,’” said committee member Susan Salisbury.

Committee member Alex Stone, who chaired the committee’s finance committee, said last week that he recognized cutting positions saved money, but in this case, losing a guidance counselor just wasn’t worth it.

“I’m less concerned about the number, and more concerned about making sure we provide the needed services,” he said.

The committee voted 6-0, with Suzanne Joyce absent, to keep the counselor, but many other positions were cut. In all, Gousse said, 13.5 positions were getting cut from the department in the proposed 2013 budget. Gousse said he was still processing a number of retirements, so with some personnel shifting into other positions, it was difficult to tell right now how many staff members would lose their jobs, but he suspected it would be less than 13.

Despite the painful cuts, school officials and committee members have said the 2013 budget process went much more smoothly than the 2012 process. For the 2012 budget, the district learned in March of 2011 that there would be a gap of well over $3 million, due to unexpected losses in state and federal funding, leading to a scramble to cut the budget in time.

For the 2013 budget, Gousse said, the department began working in August 2011, well in advance of the spring deadline. Stone and other committee members said last week that they were proud to have cut more than $2 million out of the budget.

“I am extremely excited about where we ended up,” Gouse said.