OXFORD – The SAD 17 Budget Committee has hammered out a preliminary $30.5 million budget for 2005 to be presented to the school board on Monday night.

The budget reflects an increase of $613,492 – 4.67 percent – above fiscal year 2004.

The figures are considered preliminary because changes may occur after they’re reviewed by townspeople at a series of meeting from Tuesday to April 14 and scrutinized again by the committee before being presented to the board in a final budget hearing on May 25.

The budget is also based on a state allocation of $12,962,702, which will not be decided until the Legislature passes the state budget.

Business manager Cathy Fanjoy said the allocation figure was based on information from the governor’s office dated March 10 and that things can change.

“We don’t know how much the allocation will be, and they might adopt a budget next week or it could go until June 30,” she said.

In the preliminary budget, the largest increases in town assessments would be: Otisfield, 9.92 percent, Harrison, 6.74 percent, Norway, 5.22 percent, and West Paris, 5.01 percent.

Oxford would be next with a 3.61 percent increase, followed by Hebron, 3.56 percent, Waterford, 2.04 percent, and Paris, 1.54 percent.

Seventy-five percent of the assessments are based on town valuations and 25 percent based on student population.

Fanjoy said she thought it was important for residents of Otisfield, Harrison, Oxford and West Paris to know that if SAD 17 had kept the same budget as last year, their assessments would still have gone up, while the others would be reduced, in keeping the 75-25 assessment formula.

One of the reasons for the rise in the budget is that the carry-over will be reduced by $290,000.

Fanjoy said that until fiscal year 2002 there had been savings in turnover, replacing retiring teachers with younger ones at a lower pay grade, so the district was able to build the carry-over to about $900,000.

She said that money has been used over the past two years to keep the town assessments down.

“We don’t build in any cushions into the budget,” Fanjoy said. “When you do, it just inflates expenses. I monitor where we are and where we should be every month.”

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