PARIS — About 50 people from the Oxford Hills School District unanimously approved a $35.9 million budget for SAD 17 on Thursday night.

Seven residents from Paris, including two school board directors, were seated together in one area of the Forum at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and told they could participate but their votes would not be recognized because Paris Town Clerk and Registrar of Voters Elizabeth Knox was not there to register them.

The $35,945,340 budget is a 2.23 percent increase from the 2012-13 fiscal year and requires an average 6.5 percent increase in the local share districtwide.

Otisfield voters will see the highest increase at 10 percent, while Waterford will see the lowest at 4.18 percent.

Thursday night’s vote must be validated at a referendum at polling stations in the eight district towns Tuesday, June 11. Voters will only be able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the total 2013-14 budget figure.

Voters approved individual articles that included the Oxford Hills Technical School and Adult Education budgets for the coming fiscal year that begins July 1.

Superintendent Rick Colpitts told voters that the budget includes $150,000 to replace the portable classroom at Oxford Hills Middle School in Paris and create a second campus for more classrooms; $419,000 for teacher retirement costs; a $350,000 increase for negotiated salaries and a $438,000 increase in health insurance costs.

The $630,000 reduction in the budget includes $309,000 from the contingency fund, $131,000 in debt service, $40,000 in positions — including an educational technician position and cuts in secretarial costs — and another $150,000 in miscellaneous cuts.

Voters authorized the following amounts: special education, $4,218,023; career and technical education, $3,079,546; other instruction, $602,134; student and staff support, $2,681,537; system administration, $724,272; and school administration, $1,875,178.

Other amounts approved were: transportation and buses, $2,524,055; facilities maintenance, $3,650,758; debt service and other commitments, $2,333,289.

Voters also approved the district’s $223,635 share of the overall $540,339 adult education bill, which is shared with RSU 10, and the Vocational Region 11 operating budget of $3,670,800.

Colpitts told voters that legislation has been passed to extend the repeal of the minimum state required contribution for the 2013-14 fiscal year. It will allow each town to be assessed less than the state required minimum for the coming fiscal year.

The school administrative unit’s contribution to the total cost of funding public education from kindergarten to grade 12 is the amount of money determined by state law to be the minimum amount that the district must raise and assess in order to receive the full amount of state dollars.

Colpitts said the school district simply has no control over the state’s valuation of each town.

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