BETHEL - After about seven years worth of trying to get voters to OK money needed to replace the Telstar Middle School/High School entryway, SAD 44 Superintendent Dave Murphy finally got the go-ahead on Thursday night.

At the district budget meeting, a majority OK'd transferring $500,000 from available balances at the end of the 2007-08 fiscal year to the School Capital Reserve Fund.

They also approved spending $311,141 from that fund to pay 63.24 percent of the costs for structural repairs to the entrance canopy and to install a sprinkler system. The balance of project, $180,859, will be funded by a state grant through the School Revolving Renovation Fund Program.

"For the past six or seven years, I've been trying to get that done, but the funding hasn't been available," Murphy said by phone on Friday afternoon in Bethel.

Funding through the state program wasn't available either until this year. As soon as he learned about it, Murphy said he applied for the money.

"I'm hopeful that the entryway project will be completed by the time school is in session this fall," he said.

The sprinkler system, however, will likely be done in two phases, with the second being completed during the summer of 2009.

Regarding the district's proposed $10,253,190 budget for 2008-09, it was approved by a tally of 114-4. It is up $254,229 over the current year budget of $9,998,961.

"Everything went through, all 18 articles. According to the budget vote, there were 118 people there. The meeting was fairly uneventful, but it was about two hours long," Murphy said.

He said the overall budget was up 2.5-percent due to:

• getting approximately $200,000 less in state aid this year;

• having to absorb more than $180,000 in new costs for the Region 9 School of Applied Technology addition project approved last year;

• skyrocketing costs of diesel fuel and heating oil; and

• negotiated increases in salaries and benefits for all employee groups due to collective bargaining agreements.

A district budget validation referendum, which seeks a yes or no response on the $10,253,190 budget adopted Thursday night, will be held Tuesday, June 10, at polling stations in the district towns of Andover, Bethel, Greenwood, Newry and Woodstock.