OXFORD — The SAD 17 Board of Directors approved the proposed $37.65 million fiscal year 2014-15 budget at its meeting Monday night.

The proposed budget will defer major maintenance projects but maintain programs districtwide and add teaching positions, Superintendent Rick Colpitts said .

The budget, which is 4.27 percent more than this fiscal year, requires an average 3.99 percent increase in local assessments. The local assessments for the eight towns range from a low of 2.77 percent for Norway to a high of 5.99 percent for Oxford.

The budget was approved unanimously by the Budget Committee at a meeting Monday night just prior to the full Board of Directors meeting and vote.

District voters will act on the budget at 7 p.m. June 5 in the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School Forum in Paris.

The budget validation referendum is set for June 10 in each town. At that time, only the overall budget number of $37.65 million will be presented for a yes or no vote, Colpitts said.

Colpitts told directors that the budget includes $225,000 for four more teachers to reduce elementary class sizes to 25 students or fewer, $45,000 for a middle and high school technology teacher and $25,000 for a preschool teacher at the Hebron Station School.

The additional personnel not only will help reduce elementary school class sizes, but help to implement a $326,908 second-year payment for additional technology at middle schools in Paris and Oxford, and Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.

The money will also hire a teacher for the implementation of a new preschool class at the Hebron school.

The budget does not include money for nearly $1 million in needed maintenance such as new roofs at the high school and Oxford Elementary School, and paving projects districtwide. It also does not include money for three requested additional buses and nearly $200,000 in other requested departmental needs, Colpitts said.

The budget also includes the Oxford Hills Technical School proposed fiscal 2014-15 budget of $3,756,732. It’s 2.31 percent more than this fiscal year.

Colpitts said the district has until 2017 to meet the required Essential Services and Programs local share. SAD 17 is 5.57 percent under EPS.

ldixon@sunjournal.com