SACO — The Saco School Department is proposing to expand its pre-K program and create a special education day program — two big ticket initiatives school officials say will bring in revenues to help offset the costs of the programs.

Saco Schools Director of Finance Jason DiDonato presented a proposed “maintenance budget” that maintained current contracts and staffing levels at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

This proposed $40.4 million budget would be a 2.73 percent increase from last year’s budget and would increase the mil rate by 11 cents. This does not include any potential mil rate increase from the city’s budget.

Superintendent of Schools Dominic DePatsy presented some additional items not included in the preliminary budget proposal that school staff have requested for the upcoming year.

Items not included in the preliminary budget include $80,000 for furniture, $70,000 for a STEM teacher and $70,000 for a third grade teacher at C.K. Burns, $70,000 for a district nurse, $70,000 for a social worker for Fairfield and Young schools, $35,000 to replace an educational technician with a math teacher at Young School, $70,000 for a functional life skills teacher for kindergarten through second grade and $70,000 for a social worker at Saco Middle School.

DePatsy said the school department is also considering restructuring its current program for students with behavioral problems as a special education day treatment program, adding two social workers and a psychologist and providing additional training for educational technicians.

The school will bill eligible for students through MaineCare.

DePatsy said the program will cost about $2.4 million, about $1.7 million of which is in the current proposed budget.

DePatsy said the program will better serve students and the revenue brought in by the program will fund the additional $720,000 needed above the preliminary budget to run the program, plus bring in an additional $573,000 of revenue.

DiDonato said the school is also proposing the expansion of the pre-K program it started this year to open it to all students.

The cost to implement the expanded program would cost about $810,000. This would cover expenses including teachers, a program director, a secretary, new buses, supplies and a lease for a modular building.

Despite the cost to expand the program, school officials say the Pre-K program in its second year will not only pay for itself but actually supplement the operating budget by $84,000, due mostly to state subsidies.

The School Board is scheduled to meet 7 p.m. tonight at Saco City Hall.

— Liz Gotthelf can be reached at 780-9015 or by email at egotthelf@journaltribune.com.