AUBURN – Fifteen positions would be gone if the Auburn school budget agreed to Wednesday night by the School Committee is adopted.

Ten of those people would be laid off, including an Auburn Middle School teacher and the Edward Little High School substance abuse counselor.

The committee is scheduled to vote on the budget April 16 and send it to the City Council on April 17. A citywide referendum on the budget will be held May 6.

The school spending requires $475,000 less from Auburn property taxpayers than last year, and relies on $363,869 more from state taxes.

Overall the proposed budget is $34.26 million, up from last year’s $33.72 million. The impact on property taxpayers means someone with a home valued at $177,000 will pay $46 less in taxes for school spending, Superintendent Tom Morrill said.

While the revised school budget includes fewer jobs, including one of the four assistant principals at Edward Little High School, it’s less severe than one proposed last month that would have cut 29 positions, 21 of them layoffs.

School officials explained Wednesday two significant chunks of money have been identified as revenue. That means cuts of $1.2 million were needed instead of $1.7 million.

That extra money is $200,000 left from this year, plus the committee decided to use $460,000 from the sale of Mt. Auburn Avenue property, hoping the City Council will allow that money to stay in the school budget.

Committee member Bonnie Hayes asked whether is was a “little dangerous” to book the Mt. Auburn property sale as revenue in case the City Council decides not to give it to the School Department. If the council makes that decision, further cuts will have to be made, Morrill said.

A committee vote six weeks ago to eliminate the $45,000 consultant post that former Superintendent Barbara Eretzian now fills and to cut a dean at the Auburn Middle School was unofficially overturned Wednesday.

Committee members decided to do with one less high school assistant principal, but that two deans at the middle school are needed. The earlier vote was to eliminate Eretzian’s position and create another administrator to serve as assistant superintendent and help out at other schools.

But the status quo makes more sense, said committee Chairman David Das. “You had somebody doing a lot of work for $45,000 without benefits. The administrative reorganization voted in six weeks ago would have had a full-time assistant superintendent with benefits.” That would have cost $90,000, plus benefits, Das said. Fiscally, the better way to go is to pay a $45,000 stipend to Eretzian, someone “who knows the system, is incredibly bright, has a great work ethnic, gets various tasks done,” he said.

Her contract said she’d work 60 days a year because that’s the limit allowed under the state retirement law, “but we’re very well aware the person will complete all tasks and projects” assigned to her, Das said.

Teaching positions restored in the budget include two at the Auburn land lab, one each at Washburn and Sherwood Heights, two at the high school and one elementary gifted and talented. Money to continue the Unity Project and the L-A Arts were kept.

Positions eliminated include one teacher at the middle school, Fairview and East Auburn elementary, the high school substance abuse counselor and a special education social worker. Three of those jobs involve actual layoffs; two are not being filled after current staff retires.

Other support jobs eliminated include one crossing guard, one secretary each at the middle and high school, four education technicians and a part-time custodian.

The committee did not go for a recommendation made by member Tom Kendall to consolidate school buildings. Kendall said closing two elementary schools with small student populations would save $500,000 a year, and would avoid layoffs.

City Councilor Ron Potvin, the mayor’s representative on the School Committee, gave a list of budget questions councilors plan to ask tonight when it meets with school officials.

Those questions include:

• Can the elementary schools do with three guidance counselors instead of six?

• Do the Franklin and Merrill Hill alternative schools need separate buildings?

• Can teachers attend fewer conferences?

• Would educators, who last year paid about 10 percent of their health care costs while taxpayers paid 90 percent, be willing to pay more to reduce layoffs?

Health benefits are going up by $392,889, which is the second-largest increase in the budget. Salaries are going up by $840,725, which is the largest increase in the budget.