BATH — Cuts and compromise led the way to unanimous approval of a Regional School Unit 1 budget Tuesday that maintains slots in the district’s pre-kindergarten program, restores funding for a soccer program at Woolwich Central School, and reduces the projected increase in each town’s education contribution.

The board — representing Arrowsic, Bath, Phippsburg, West Bath and Woolwich — gained $108,610 of leeway Tuesday by new cuts proposed by Superintendent Patrick Manuel.

Those new savings, $78,000 of which come from not filling the position of a social studies teacher retiring from Morse High School, left the board with three options: using the $108,610 to reduce each town’s education spending, restoring programs or a combination of both.

Around the table, the board’s seven members showed strong support Tuesday for restoring 18 prekindergarten slots at a cost of $3,060 per student. Some members said Tuesday that the decision to restore the program to a total of 71 slots was a linchpin of their support for the overall $26 million spending plan.

“I would have found it difficult to support this budget without the pre-K program back in,” said board member Alan Walton, who represents parts of Arrowsic and Bath.

New cuts

The new cuts presented Tuesday also include: $8,000 from the supply budget for the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center; $6,500 from reductions in the number of Rosetta Stone language software licenses; $5,000 from changing telephone providers; $3,000 from the supply budget at Dike-Newell School; $3,000 from staff development; $1,400 from stipends and supplies for the Teamwork for Kids and Ready Set Go programs; $1,000 from central office supplies and $750 from other central office expenses; $1,000 from supplies and field trips at Fisher- Mitchell School; and $960 by eliminating a stipend for the National Junior Honor Society at Bath Middle School.

Superintendent Patrick Manuel said that those additional cuts will not affect the district’s programming or course offerings.

Morse High Principal Peter Kahl said cutting the position of one retiring teacher will not force changes to course offerings at the school.

Facing the largest supply budget cut, Joel Austin, director of the Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, said that he will be able to shift some money from other parts of the budget to pay for supplies.

“We can always dig a little deeper,” Austin said, noting that “it’s a tough year.”

The spoils

Alongside approval to restore $63,140 to support the pre-K and Woolwich Central School soccer programs, just more than $45,000 will go to offsetting each RSU 1 town’s local contribution.

Before Tuesday, the collective local contribution from all five towns was set to increase 2.5 percent, or $424,979, over last year. The additional funds will lower that increase to 2.25 percent, or $379,509, over last year.

For each town, the new local contribution request works out to different dollar amounts, decreased from a budget proposed prior to the additional $108,610 in cuts:

— Arrowsic: $494,006, down from $495,302.

— Bath: $8,580,112, down from $8,602,620.

— Phippsburg: $2,986,572, down from $2,994,407.

— West Bath: $2,158,028, down from $2,163,689.

— Woolwich: $3,114,841, down from $3,123,012.

Ruth Moore, RSU 1’s business manager, said the new figures will now go back to each town to determine how much they will affect property taxes.

Each local contribution is based on a cost-sharing formula defined in LD 910, the unique legislation that formed RSU 1. How to apply that formula has been a point of contention after a recent legal opinion required the district to calculate the full local contribution by using a formula that factors, in equal parts, state property valuation, town population and student population.

Manuel said Tuesday that the board is exploring the idea of forming a committee with representatives from each of the five communities to re-evaluate how costs are shared.

Last week, the Bath City Council issued a letter requesting creation of such a committee and that it make a recommendation by June 30.

The vote

The RSU 1 board also voted unanimously to establish a schedule for the remainder of the 2012-13 budget approval process, setting a June 5 town meeting-style hearing to allow residents a final chance to weigh in publicly on the budget and setting wording for a June 12 referendum to go before voters in each RSU 1 town.

The new budget would take effect on July 1.

dfishell@timesrecord.com