Preston - The Board of Education on Thursday approved a $10.85 million 2015-16 school budget with no increase in spending over this year's budget, and later in the meeting voted to keep the town school bus service rather than contract with an outside bus company.

The budget approval meeting had been postponed twice by snow and once due to a board member illness, pushing the vote to just a few days before the budget must be submitted to the Board of Finance on Tuesday.

The final proposed budget has the same $10.85 million bottom line as the preliminary budget Superintendent John Welch presented to the board in January, but a few line items within the budget changed slightly.

The budget contains no new programs, except for a continuation of the controversial full-day preschool that started Jan. 26 and the addition of two kindergarten classroom aides. The kindergarten aides were proposed last year but were cut from the final budget.

According to the budget summary, special education costs based on anticipated placement of students is expected to decrease by $173,448, a drop of 11.6 percent from this year. Preston regular education enrollment at Norwich Free Academy and at the region's magnet schools also is expected to drop, saving $111,115.

Welch said the preliminary budget also projected a 4 percent tuition increase at NFA, but the actual tuition increase approved by the NFA board last week will be 2 percent.

Other decreases throughout the budget would save $52,203, the administrators said.

The savings helped to offset the added cost of continuing the new universal preschool program for all Preston 4-year-olds and to add two kindergarten classroom aides, while proposing no increase in the overall budget, Welch said.

However, Welch said if the Board of Finance later this spring opts to reduce the school budget to the state-calculated minimum budget requirement of $10.76 million - $81,000 lower than the current budget - the $75,000 for the kindergarten aides would be the first item cut from the budget.

Welch said he hopes the level funding would be acceptable, given that most towns in the area have proposed increases to their school budgets. He added that next year's kindergarten enrollment is expected to be 43 students, large enough to warrant classroom aides.

The preschool program proved controversial last spring, when voters rejected the initial school budget that included $185,000 to create two new preschool classes. The Board of Education dropped the proposal with the reduced $10.8 million approved budget, but in December voted to start the program this month with midyear savings in special education.

In the school bus contract issue, the board went out to bid last fall for private bus contractors that potentially could replace the current local bus service. Two firms submitted bids, and the labor union representing the 16 drivers and one mechanic submitted a counterproposal, arguing that the town would save more money by reducing outsourcing for bus repairs and for driver training rather than outsourcing all bus services.

The board discussed the school bus transportation feasibility study conducted by administrators Thursday behind closed doors before voting in open session not to continue with the feasibility study and to retain the current school bus transportation system.

c.bessette@theday.com

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