POLAND — The RSU 16 School Committee received news Monday that the district apparently will receive more state aid next year than expected.

“We had expected we were going to receive about $273,000 less next year than this, but on Friday we heard we may actually be receiving about $274,000 more than this year,” Superintendent Michael Wilhelm said.

The reason for the increase is that the district’s school population is 1 percent higher than it was a year ago, according to Wilhelm.

“Statewide, the school population has gone down 2 percent,” Wilhelm said.

According to Wilhelm, the $274,000 is the net gain, and takes into account the curtailment, or across the board reduction, that was recently announced.

Assistant Superintendent Tina Meserve gave the School Committee a second piece of good news. The district’s third through eighth grade students showed improvements in all academic areas in recent standardized testing.

Across the district, reading scores showed a 3 percent gain, math was up 5 percent, and writing was up 4 percent.

“The district is above the state average in all areas. We couldn’t be prouder of our students, teachers, and principals who work hard every day,” Meserve said.

State results show that the percentage of students who are proficient or higher as follows:

* Reading 71 percent

* Math 62 percent

* Writing 51 percent.

For comparison, the district’s local schools scored as follows:

 * Elm Street School: Reading, 75 percent; math, 67 percent; writing, 53 percent.

* Poland Community School: Reading, 72 percent; math, 69 percent; writing, 54 percent.

* Minot Consolidated School: Reading, 82 percent; math, 79 percent; writing, 88 percent.

Whittier Middle School: Reading, 72 percent; math, 58 percent; writing, 50 percent.

The School Committee also received a progress report from Kerri Sands of Good Group Decisions, the consulting firm helping the district prepare a strategic plan.

The report contains the results of surveys completed by about 130 staff members and more than 350 members of the public, plus summaries of the three community meetings and the meeting with town officials.

The committee will hold a workshop Monday to go over the report in detail.

The timetable calls for a draft of the district’s strategic plan to be completed in early April with a final report to be released a few weeks later.

The School Committee intends to use the strategic plan as it crafts its final recommendations for next year’s budget.