BIDDEFORD — On Tuesday, Biddeford voters overwhelmingly approved the school budget along with two regional cost-sharing center referendum questions.

Casting their ballots at the Biddeford High School Tiger Gym, voters passed the $37 million school budget for fiscal year 2019, 2,499 to 861. Property taxpayers will contribute about $18.1 million toward education expenditures.

The new budget is about.08 percent higher than the current budget and will add less than 1 penny to the mil rate, Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Ray said.

Over the last five years, Ray noted, the city’s school budgets have added only about 3.5 cents to the mil rate. Despite this modest rise, he said, positions and programs have been retained and new options for students have been added.

The new budget, Ray said, includes adding more students to the pre-Kindergarten program, a music teach, a director of instruction and innovation, an English language learner teacher, and professional development and support for math instruction.

Passage of the school budget includes about $900,000 for a new, synthetic turf field for Waterhouse Field. Football, boys and girls soccer, field hockey, and boys and girls lacrosse will be played on the woven turf field, which will be installed this summer.

“It brings equity to our athletic teams, it brings regulation fields and most of all it brings playability,” Ray said in May when recommending the field to the School Committee.

The woven turf field, which will be manufactured by a Saco company, is more durable and long lasting than tufted turf fields, he said.

Residents also voted for two regional cost-savings centers. “These regional centers will have no impact on the local decision-making of our local school board,” Ray said.

Question 3, which would formalize the School Department’s shared administrative services with Dayton, passed 1,970 to 884. Question 4, a joint purchasing cooperative with nine area school districts, was approved 1,760 to 1,070. Dayton and other school districts must also pass similar referendum questions in their communities. Passage of these cost-sharing centers would make the School Department eligible for a minimum of $150,000 in state subsidy in the next budget cycle, Ray said.

About 22 percent of Biddeford registered voters, 3,143 people, turned out at the polls on Tuesday.

— Associate Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324, or dmendros@journaltribune.com.