JAY – School and Budget Committee members Wednesday will review $110,182 in proposed reductions and offsets from the nearly $10 million 2008 school budget that was rejected June 12.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the middle school.

Voters agreed to appropriate state education money and to raise matching funds but opposed raising $2 million in local money and spending $9.96 million overall for education. The 2007-2008 budget proposal was $504,000 less than the current year.

The budget cut suggestions are not a done deal, just a proposal, acting School Committee Chairman Mary Redmond-Luce said Monday.

In the proposal are reductions and offsets: $83,000 in health insurance, $10,000 from curriculum reserve to offset assessment in improvement to instruction curriculum section; $28,350 in heating oil, $27,473 salary and benefits to reduce a high school teacher to half time; $543 reduced substitute costs, $14,000 reduced principal on bus payments (a new bus purchase failed at polls).

There is a proposal to add $53,184 for salary and benefits for another kindergarten teacher to serve a higher pupil enrollment.

“What we have is a reserve for insurance, and what we are looking to do is to use the insurance reserve to offset the cost of insurance and to lower the tax commitment,” Redmond-Luce said of health insurance.

Redmond-Luce said in regards to reducing high school social studies teaching position, that officials are looking to have elective courses offered in alternative years.

The curriculum reserve would offset assessment cost instead of raising more money, she said.

The reduction in heating oil costs would come from a lower purchase price of $2.09 for oil.

“The utilization of reserves comes out of a request from the Budget Committee to make sure that we reduce the budget without hurting our students and I fully concur with that request,” Redmond-Luce said.

The board, Budget Committee and the public, including teachers, met in a workshop last week to discuss reductions.

Among suggestions were a three-year salary freeze and a part-time superintendent.

“We would legally have to reopen by mutual agreement and renegotiate part of the contract or the entire contract” if the committee considered freezing salaries, she said.

“For an actual freeze to occur the bargaining units would have to sign off on this, and in essence that would be for each bargaining unit to agree for a freeze,” she added.

“We have renegotiated almost all bargaining units with the last two years and continue to save the local taxpayers ($1.8 million between fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2008,” Redmond-Luce said.

There has been give and take in the negotiations, she said, including staff members contributing more toward health insurance premiums.

The administrative part of the budget was already reduced by $108,000 in the last warrant, she said.

The administrative line covers the superintendent’s budget, business manager, administrative assistant position, the School Committee and fees associated with running the school system, she said. Other administrators are included in the budget where they work.

Superintendent Robert Wall’s contract runs to July 1, 2010.

The system had an interim superintendent six years ago who worked part time, and things did not get done, Redmond-Luce said.

“A superintendent’s job is often situational. Many standard business operational things currently get done by our superintendent after hours,” she said. “Often he works far more than the 45 hours that are expected. With consolidation in our near future it would be a terrible business decision for our town to not have an educational leader at the helm that can support and establish collaboration from the standpoint of the best choices for Jay and to be able to work with the School Committee to negotiate over the next year.”