Preston — Efforts to cut significant funding from the proposed school budget and to cut one resident state trooper from the town budget failed during the annual budget town meeting Thursday, sending the $3.4 million town and $11.3 million school budgets to a May 17 referendum.

More than 40 residents debated both measures before hands were raised and votes were cast to defeat the proposed spending cuts.

In a separate vote, residents removed $100,000 from the capital nonrecurring fund set aside to pay for revaluation. They voted to place the money in the town surplus fund for possible future use as needed.

Resident Jill Keith suggested cutting $659,715 from the school budget to reduce it to the state-mandated minimum expenditure per student.

The move would have reduced the school budget to $10.6 million, some $200,000 below this year's total.

Keith and others who defended the cut said the Board of Education routinely in recent years has not spent its entire budget, and has returned money to the town.

By that action, Keith argued, the school budget was artificially high.

Keith and resident William Legler also argued that the school board and administration bucked voters' wishes when they instituted full-day preschool for all eligible 4-year-olds and purchased a school maintenance truck.

In both cases, they said, residents had voted to reduce the school budget, but the board found money even in the reduced budget to spend on those items.

“The Board of Education snubbed their noses at the Board of Finance and snubbed their noses at the town,” Legler said.

Superintendent John Welch said Keith's proposed cut essentially would eliminate all specialty programs, including instrumental music, Spanish, sports and universal preschool.

Supporters of the cut claimed the board could absorb the reduction without hurting student programs, with resident Steve Colli calling it Welch's statement “a fear tactic” by school officials.

After the proposed cut was defeated, Board of Education member Sean Nugent quickly moved to “call the question,” cutting off debate and preventing additional proposals to cut the $11.3 million school budget.

While some complained that debate was being stymied too quickly, the motion passed narrowly.

On the town budget side, resident Andy Depta proposed cutting $161,000 from the draft $322,650 budget for two resident state troopers — essentially reducing the town to one resident trooper.

Depta said the state was pushing more and more of the cost for resident troopers onto the towns.

Other supporters of the reduction said the town would still be adequately covered by state police Troop E in Montville at all hours of the day and night.

Depta also argued that eliminating one resident trooper would force the Board of Selectmen to pursue offers by Norwich and Ledyard officials to provide police services to the town.

“If we don't pass this, the Board of Selectmen will slow-road this issue, and we'll be back here again next year,” Depta said.

Voters, however, rejected the proposal to cut troopers by a vote of 24 to 17.

c.bessette@theday.com