BATH

Regional School Unit 1 will send a budget increase of 6.6 percent to the voters of its five municipalities.

The board approved a 2013- 14 package Monday night that would assess its members with vastly different tax burdens under a new cost-sharing plan that’s been debated at length and is the subject of an ongoing legal dispute.

The $27.7 million budget request would hit the towns of West Bath and Woolwich hard. Not including their municipal budgets, West Bath would see a 24 percent increase in the cost of education, and Woolwich would increase by 16.4 percent.

Bath residents would pay 6.2 percent more to educate its students.

Phippsburg would enjoy a 10.6 percent decrease, while Arrowsic would pay 2.7 percent less.

Today, a judge in Sagadahoc County Superior Court will consider a motion to dismiss West Bath’s lawsuit against RSU 1, based on financial damages incurred from a former cost-sharing plan. Arrowsic, Bath and Woolwich have joined RSU 1 as defendants in the case.

The “growth budget,” as board member William Perkins described it, includes a new health teacher at Bath Middle School and at Woolwich Central School — a new position that’s more than full- time, and costs $78,000. The health teacher would be fulltime at Bath and part-time at Woolwich.

RSU 1 residents, concerned at the rate of alcoholism, drug use and suicide threats, have called for a health coordinator in the school unit all during the school year.

The budget request also includes more pre-K staff, a new fifth-grade teacher in Woolwich and a new kindergarten teacher in West Bath. Combining a kindergarten and grade 1 teacher position in Phippsburg would be a money savings.

The board on Monday night agreed to add $15,000 for professional development — half the amount requested by Vice Chairman Stephen August. Member Alan Walton said skilled staff people should be able to help in that direction.

“This school district at one time was noted for its internal professional training,” Walton said. “I would like to see us get back to that.”

The board declined to add money for fees related to a bond to the budget, instead deciding to roll any of that expense into the bond itself. Superintendent Patrick Manuel has said that a bond referendum will be needed to improve facilities will be needed in the near future.