BATH

Residents from Regional School Unit 1 member towns will gather tonight for a district wide meeting, to vote on the proposed $28.3 million school budget.

If approved, the budget will then go to a June 10 budget validation referendum by written ballot at municipal polling locations in the RSU 1 communities of Arrowsic, Bath, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich.

The $28,352,583 budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year proposes a 2.2 percent increase, or $603,859, over last year’s budget of $27,748,714.

Of this, the local share is $18,800,792, a 3.2 percent increase, or additional $584,747, over last year’s local share of $18,216,318.

In the proposed budget, the local contribution for Arrowsic has decreased 8.3 percent, from $474,407 last year to $435,221 in the proposed budget, a difference of $39,186.

Phippsburg’s local contribution, which has the largest percentage increase, has gone up 5.4 percent, a hike of $141,322, raising the total from $2,634,748 to $2,776,070 this year.

Woolwich also has a substantial increase in the local contribution, set to go up 4.6 percent, an additional $161,670, raising the total from $3,534,532 last year to $3,696,202.

The local contribution for West Bath has gone up 2.1 percent, an increase of $57,172, raising the total from $2,678,337 to $2,735,509.

Bath’s local contribution, the largest dollar increase, has gone up 3 percent, an additional $263,495, raising the total from $8,894,294 last year to $9,157,789.

If passed as recommended, the impact of the school budget on the member town’s tax rate per $1,000 of assessed property value shows a decrease in Arrowsic, and increase in all other communities.

In Arrowsic, including only the RSU 1 budget — not municipal or county budgets — the tax rate on a $100,000 residential property will decrease by 20 cents per $1,000 assessed value, dropping from $5.29 to $5.09, a difference of $19.26.

The tax rate for Woolwich will increase by 49 cents per $1,000, raising the rate from $9.45 to $9.94, an additional $49.24.

Bath will have an increase of 35 cents per $1,000, raising the rate from $9.83 to $10.18, an additional $35.53.

Phippsburg’s tax rate will increase 27 cents per $1,000, raising the rate from $4.25 to $4.52, an additional $26.89.

The tax rate for West Bath will increase by 27 cents per $1,000, raising the rate from $7.67 to $7.94, an additional $26.54.

According to the RSU 1 Annual District Budget Report, there are currently 2,285 students attending district schools and 316 district staff.

At Phippsburg Elementary School, serving grades pre-K to 5, there are 93 students enrolled; at Woolwich Central School, serving grades pre-K to 8, there are 366 students, and at Dike- Newell School, serving grades pre-K to 2, there are 268 students.

At West Bath School, serving grades K-5, there are 149 students and at Fisher- Mitchell School, serving grades 3-5, there are 340 students.

Bath Middle School, which serves grades 6-8, has 360 students enrolled, and at Morse High School, which serves grades 9-12, there are 595 students. There are 152 students enrolled at the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, which serves grades 11 and 12.

Previous statistics placed the total enrollment at 2,104 students, of which 37 were from Arrowsic, 1,178 from Bath, 236 from Phippsburg, 222.5 from West Bath and 430.5 from Woolwich.

Nearly 38 percent, a total of $10,727,403, of the proposed budget goes to regular instruction expenses, compared to the state average of 40 percent. This is an increase of 1.5 percent, or $157,174, over last year.

Special education expenses account for 16.9 percent of the budget, a total of $4,782,219, compared to the state average of 15.1 percent. This is an increase of 3.6 percent, or $166,697.

The third largest item is the budget line for operations and maintenance, which account for 11.4 percent of the budget, a total of $3,242,594, compared to the state average of 11.2 percent. This is an increase of 3.4 percent over last year, or $107,407.

Debt service, which accounts for 6.2 percent of the total, or $1,762,568, compared to the state average of 6.7 percent, shows a decrease of 2.8 percent, of $50,091.

The district budget meeting will take place at 6 p.m. tonight at Bath Middle School, located at 6 Old Brunswick Road, Bath. Registration will be open at 5:30 p.m.

THE $28,352,583 budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year proposes a 2.2 percent increase, or $603,859, over last year’s budget of $27,748,714.