Montville — The town's school board will be voting later this month on a budget proposal that would increase local education spending by nearly $700,000 at a time of unpredictable levels of state aid, higher special education costs and consistently decreasing enrollment, the superintendent told the board Tuesday.

The proposed 1.84 percent increase is close to, but not quite as large, as the increase Superintendent Brian Levesque proposed during his 2016 budget address. Through cuts in the mayor's office and the Town Council's Finance Committee, Levesque's proposal of $38.3 million was reduced by more than $616,000 last year.

He opened the 2018 budget process by proposing $38,390,619 in total spending, a 1.84 percent increase over the 2017 adopted budget.

Much of that increase would be driven by increased salary requirements, staff health insurance costs, special education tuition and technology improvements across the district, Levesque told the school board Tuesday evening.

The district would save money with the departure of several teachers and staff members who already have said they will retire or leave the district, the layoff of one sixth-grade teacher, two students who plan to leave the district and will not need special education-specific transportation, a cut to the district supplies budget and the reduction of the Montville High School French language instructor from a full-time position to part time.

Not filling the positions of retiring or relocating staff members would both save the district money and accommodate for declining student enrollment, which Levesque said he anticipates will continue to go down in coming years.

Levesque, who has worked to compile the budget proposal with district and school staff since October, acknowledged that the town's ability to cover the full increase would depend on the level of aid from the state budget, which won't be completed for several months.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy presented a two-year budget proposal Feb. 8 that drastically would cut state education funding to most Connecticut towns, including a more than $2 million cut to Montville's Education Cost Sharing grant.

Malloy's proposal also included a plan to make towns responsible for one third of teacher pension costs.

"As we sit here tonight there's a huge uncertainty, it's the elephant in the room," Levesque said. "If what the governor proposed last week passes, I don't even know what the right word is — it would devastate our schools."

But, he said, the budget proposal he presented to the board Tuesday covered only what the district needs to keep itself running.

"This is truly what we need to operate the district," he said. "If we start to make further cuts, it will be a real challenge."

The Board of Education will meet again Feb. 28 to propose any amendments and vote on a proposal before sending it to the mayor's office for additional edits.

m.shanahan@theday.com