NEWPORT — The SAU 43 administration and Newport School Board will hold a public hearing Thursday on a proposed $22.12 million budget, which represents an increase of nearly 1.8%, or $403,000, from the current fiscal year.

The board last week approved the budget with $483,000 in reductions from Superintendent Donna Magoon’s original spending plan. The reduction brought spending down to an amount nearly equal to the default budget. The default budget of $22.11 million will be implemented if voters defeat the proposed budget in the March 12 vote.

Magoon said this week that while she would have preferred to keep her proposal intact, she understood that voters likely would have rejected it over affordability concerns.

“I’m happy with it because I could bring it down without impacting staff,” Magoon said this week. “I did not want to cut staff.”

The budget, as proposed, would add 55 cents per $1,000 to the school portion of the town property tax rate, bringing it to $14.51, and adding $110 in school taxes to a property assessed at $200,000. The default budget is only $6,700 less and would have a similar tax impact. The projected tax rate includes a two cent increase in the state education tax.

“I think that is really good in these times especially when I look at what other districts are doing,” Magoon said about the proposed tax increase.

Some on the board wanted to “level fund” next year’s budget, making it equal to the current year, and that would have meant $886,000 in cuts, Magoon said. Other members sought to get it as close to the default budget as possible.

“The whole board said, ‘Let’s try not to impact student learning,’ ” Magoon said. “The only thing that would bring me below default or to level funded would be cutting staff.”

To meet the board’s request of a budget nearly equal to the default, there were cuts to spending on furniture, equipment, technology and software. And the salary increase for non-contracted staff was reduced to 2.5% from 5%. Magoon also noted that the proposed budget includes $105,400 for a one-year contract for support staff or paraprofessionals.

To avoid staff cuts, Magoon took five or six positions that were funded by federal pandemic aid (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) and moved them into the district’s federal Title grants, which automatically renew every year. ESSER money was distributed during COVID and is set to expire in September of this year, Magoon said. Funding those positions with Title grant money, Magoon said she was able to avoid staff cuts.

“I was able to put some of those positions into the regular budget,” Magoon said.

Magoon said previous budget cuts have left the town’s schools short on materials for some parts of the curriculum. Some of the materials were able to be duplicated, however, and some savings were found in that line item.

“We don’t want to step backwards,” Magoon said. “We are finally beginning to move forward.”

The warrant will also have a separate article with proposed pay increases for teachers under their existing contract. In June, the School Board offered to reopen the current contract in an effort to make salaries more competitive to surrounding districts in hopes it would improve teacher retention in the district. Currently, the district has five open positions at the high school, two at the middle school and one at the elementary school.

Details of the warrant article have not been finalized but will be presented at the public hearing, Magoon said.

The hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the SAU offices of the Towle Elementary School. The deliberative session, where voters can amend the budget, will be held Saturday, Feb. 3 beginning at 9 a.m. in the high school.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.