AUBURN — Third time’s a charm. The School Committee hopes so, anyway.

On Wednesday, the committee unveiled its third budget of the season. The most current is a slightly leaner version that brings a zero tax increase, something some voters have demanded in response to earlier budgets.

The bottom line of the new budget is $37.13 million, down roughly half a million dollars from the earlier version, which voters rejected July 22. The budget will go before the Auburn City Council on Monday. If passed, it will once again go up for a vote, possibly as early as Aug. 20.

How did they do it? The bulk of the cuts, according to Superintendent Katy Grondin, were made to salary lines. That doesn’t mean teacher salaries are getting cut, Grondin said. It could mean no pay increases in the near future, although those matters are still being discussed with the unions.

Smaller cuts for the proposed budget were made in special education and student and staff support.

An Auburn man, one of a handful who showed up for the meeting, pointed out that while there is a zero impact on taxes, the amount of school spending did increase. That’s true, Grondin said. However, the increase — 3.41 percent — is covered by an additional $1.2 million Auburn has received in state funding.

Going through the process for the third time, there was an air of frustration among committee members at the two-part meeting. Some still maintained that voters may have rejected earlier budgets in large part due to misinformation. Some voters might not understand that cuts now could mean trouble later because of the state’s complex Essential Programs and Services funding formula. The EPS funding model insists that each school department spend a certain amount of money in order to receive further funding.

Committee Chairman Tom Kendall called the the defeat of earlier budgets “disheartening,” suggesting that some voters might have based their decisions on information that may have been incorrect or incomplete. The committee accepted some blame for that, saying they may not have communicated as well as they could have with the voting public.

“It would help us,” Kendall said, “if more citizens would come to our meetings and share their concerns.”

Voters rejected school budgets on June 11 and July 23. By state law, the soonest the third vote can take place is Aug. 20.

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com

Auburn School Committee Budget for 2013-14