AUBURN – To continue existing programs in Auburn schools next year, spending would have to climb to $34.2 million, a 5.05 percent increase, or $1.6 million more, Auburn School Superintendent Barbara Eretzian said Tuesday.

And to give students the extra teachers and supplies she said they need, spending should go up another 2 percent.

“I don’t want anyone to think there’ll be a 7 percent increase in taxes,” Eretzian said, stressing that Auburn taxpayers can’t afford 7 percent tax increases.

But Auburn School Committee members are reviewing a preliminary budget with a 7 percent hike. They need to know “what the needs are to make decisions,” Eretzian said.

Unlike past years, school superintendents still don’t know what they’ll have for income because the Maine Department of Education has not released estimates on what the state aid to local education will be.

That means Eretzian can’t say what her proposed spending would do to property taxes because there are no state revenue numbers. “I wish we had those numbers so I could be optimistic. I’m very cautious right now.”

According to Eretzian, four areas are driving the 5 percent increase are:

• Salaries – up $750,000; teachers get 3 percent raises.

• Health benefits – up $390,000 or 8.6 percent.

• Special education out of district – up nearly $500,000, a 36 percent increase. More students with special needs have moved to Auburn.

• Energy – up $50,000; electricity went up 16 percent.

Above maintaining programs, the identified 2 percent additional spending, or $650,000, includes eight new positions, including:

• Two foreign language students at the Auburn Middle School. The teachers would help next year’s seventh-graders get a full year of language. State requirements will say they’ll have to have foreign language in high school to get their diploma, Eretzian said.

• Sharing one special education behavior specialist with Lewiston to keep special need students in Auburn rather sending them out of the district, plus one life skills special education teacher at the middle school.

• One nurse, instead of a health assistant, for elementary schools.

• One English-as-a-second-language teacher for middle and high school aged immigrant students who have never been in school. It takes more resources to help older students catch up, Eretzian said.

• Two technology integrators at the elementary schools to help teachers incorporate technology in teaching.

• One assistant principal at the East Auburn Elementary School, which now has no principal.

New spending of about $14,000 for Edward Little High School’s sports, ranging from field hockey, basketball and tennis equipment to increases for officials and new athletic benches.

Auburn would also spend about $241,000 to expand pre-K to more 4-year-olds. New programs would open at Park Avenue and Walton. Pre-K programs now exist at Fairview and Sherwood Heights. Spending to expand pre-K is expected to be a wash, since the state will reimburse Auburn this year for what it spent last year to educate 4-year-olds, Eretzian said.