Preston — In a town that required three budget referendums in each of the past two years to pass a budget, the Board of Finance late Wednesday finalized the 2020-21 budget under COVID-19 restrictions.

The board voted unanimously to pass the $12.24 million school budget, a $214,320 or 1.78% increase over this year’s budget, and voted 5-1 to approve the $3.85 million town budget, almost the same as this year.

The board voted unanimously to use $690,000 from the $3.2 million undesignated surplus fund to keep the tax rate at 26.9 mills, a 0.47-mill increase over this year's 26.43 mills.

Previously, the finance board cut $363,000 from the requested school budget. Since then, the Norwich Free Academy Foundation contributed $1.3 million toward the NFA budget to erase a 3% tuition increase for regular education and varying increases for special education programs.

Preston Superintendent Roy Seitsinger told the finance board Wednesday the NFA tuition freeze will save Preston $120,000. Seitsinger said he hoped to use that savings to offset some projected staffing cuts under the $363,000 budget reduction.

Seitsinger warned that state guidelines for reopening schools in fall will be costly, with bus monitors required, extra cleaning and precautions required throughout the schools. Seitsinger said the national superintendents’ association estimated the cost of COVID-19 school protections at $490 per student, roughly $215,000 for Preston. The town school system has received a $63,532 federal grant to assist with pandemic-related costs.

The school and town budgets both were formulated prior to the COVID-19 emergency, and those costs were not part of the budgets approved Wednesday. Finance board Vice Chairman Robert Congdon said he expects the Board of Finance to address COVID-19 costs in both the town and school budgets by the end of summer.

“To try to address COVID issues tonight is a shot in the dark,” he said. “We have no idea what the world will look like in September.”

During public comment Wednesday, the board heard both praise and criticism for how it handled the budget process under COVID-19 restrictions that prohibited in-person public hearings, town meetings and referendums.

Resident Jill Keith commended the finance board for using the surplus fund to keep down the tax rate, calling it “a very, very responsible thing to do.” She said she participated in all the long budget discussion meetings and said the board did the best it could. “I congratulate you for a job well done,” she said. “Everyone knows how hard it is.”

But resident Susan Strader said she was “very disappointed” in the budget process. She said the board ignored numerous comments in support of restoring funding to the school budget and said the online and teleconference formats prevented back-and-forth discussions. She pointed out that finance board Chairman John Moulson joined Wednesday’s meeting by phone, rather than video and could not see when board members wanted to speak and didn't see budget and revenue spreadsheets projected on the computer screen.

“To have the chairman unable to see his board members makes this meeting much more difficult for your members,” Strader said, “because it is very hard as a resident to be listening and to have so many disjointed responses. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t have a visual medium you can use.”

c.bessette@theday.com