BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford School Committee discussed options for making up snow days and outlined their budget timeline in their meeting on Tuesday.

The committee unanimously voted to change March 24 from a scheduled teacher workshop day into a student day to make up for one of the district’s six snow days to date.

Students by law are required to be in school for 175 days out of each year, and the Biddeford school calendar has an additional five days built in for snow days. As of Tuesday’s meeting, the school department has had six snow days, meaning students would be in school until June 21.

School Superintendent Jeremy Ray said he is concerned that, despite warming weather in recent weeks, there may be more snow on the way and he wants to make sure people are aware of any calendar changes in advance.

“I’ve seen many years where you have snow days in March or April,” he said. “I do think giving people as much notice as possible to any changes in the calendar is important (for) even at the end of the school year.”

Ray also said he would prefer to not add days onto the school year in June due to staff and family vacation plans and student summer jobs.

Ray issued a survey to school staff over the district’s February break to gain input as to their preferred make-up method. Staff were instructed to rank four options.

In addition to converting the March 24 workshop into a student day — moving the workshop to the end of the year — staff were given the options of holding school on a Saturday, continuing to add days onto the school year or adding an additional hour to five student days, to count as one day.

Of the 342 respondents, 73 percent selected holding a student day on March 24 as their top choice; about 21 percent said they’d prefer to add an hour to five days each.

The committee also outlined its budget timeline as it prepares for Fiscal Year 2018.

Ray said the Maine Department of Education’s recently-released ED 279 report, which outlines a school’s state government subsidy known as Essential Programs and Services, allocates an additional $944,000 to Biddeford schools than it has in previous years.

Ray said that figure is based on a $21 million decrease in the city’s three-year valuation, which he attributed to the removal of the Maine Energy Recovery Co. plant — which the city purchased in 2012 — among other factors.

“(Maine Energy) had a huge value and now we’re at the point where we’re seeing that value jump to the lowest it’s going to be,” Ray said. “Based on (that) you see that subsidy go up.”

Ray said with the increase in state funding, the School Department will see an increase in wages and benefits, with new positions being added, and hopefully new curriculum programming.

He did say the numbers are based on Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed two-year state budget, which is still subject to change. As a result, the city’s subsidy may be affected should the governor’s budget change, although Ray said he is still optimistic Biddeford will benefit.

“If we play our cards right and we’re cautious about some things, we can think a year ahead and say, ‘Hey, we could be alright,’” he said.

The committee will submit its first draft budget to the City Council and will present the budget at the council’s March 28 meeting.

A public hearing will be held at the council’s April 4 meeting; a second public hearing is scheduled for May 10, during which the council will take an initial vote on the matter.

The council will make its final vote on the proposed budget on May 16 but city residents have the final say. A school budget referendum question will be presented to voters on June 13.

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.