BETHEL – With a $600,000 carryover from last year’s budget, five SAD 44 towns will see a decrease in their share of the district’s proposed 2007-08 school budget.

At Monday night’s school board meeting, directors OK’d a $9,998,961 budget that’s $165,100 more than last year’s budget of $9,833,861.

“It’s a good reflection of a lot of time and effort,” Superintendent David Murphy said by phone Tuesday night of work by school officials and school board members. “Any time you can only bring a 1.67 percent increase and still get the job done, that’s pretty good, especially with $60,000 less from the state.”

Additionally, he said that part of the carryover was used to cover the increase and a $60,000 shortfall in state funding.

“We’re in good shape, for a change and, it feels good,” he said.

Murphy contacted town leaders in Andover, Bethel, Greenwood, Newry and Woodstock on Tuesday and shared the news.

“People, so far, seem to be pretty pleased,” he added.

The district will operate on a bare-bones budget, but increased last year’s $50,000 contingency provision by $75,000 for a buffer that can only be spent with specific board approval should a need arise.

“It was our only alternative short of having to call for a special referendum, which we really didn’t want to do,” Murphy said.

During the budget process, directors cut teaching positions and decided not to fill other positions left vacant when people quit or retired, but will hire some people on an as needed basis. They’ve also added a K-12 social worker and an education technician to run a new two-way audio/visual lab to enable students to take classes across the state with other students electronically while remaining in Bethel, Murphy said.

The district is also talking with neighboring SAD 43 to share costs and some services.