DIXFIELD – Although it will be another four weeks before a proposed 2009-10 budget is approved by the newly organized Western Foothills School District board, the figure will likely be nearly $34 million.

“The three districts 2008-09 combined budgets were $34.2 million,” said Superintendent Tom Ward. “These numbers are kind of mind-boggling. This is the big time, folks.”

Representatives from several so-called three-district cost centers – that is, departments such as maintenance, transportation, technology and others – outlined anticipated funding needs at a budget workshop Tuesday night. More numbers will be presented at the board’s regular meeting Tuesday at the Hartford-Sumner Elementary School.

Ward outlined several big ticket items that the new district is eyeing. These include establishing a pre-K program in SADs 21 and 43. SAD 39 already has one. He also inserted a contingency fund of $250,000 because there are so many unknowns establishing a new regional school district.

Other items include about $738,000 in salary increases, about $500,000 in building maintenance needs, $500,000 for new jobs required to serve special needs students expected to move into the district, $262,000 to pay for jobs that had been federally funded, and $265,000 to provide laptops for students in grades 7-12 that don’t already have them.

Nearly $1 million of those additions will likely be offset by federal stimulus money, another million is expected from additional state aid to education, and about $500,000 should be offset by health insurance premium decreases and elimination of two teaching jobs at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford.

Ward said he plans to have scenarios showing the impact on each of the 12 district towns in coming weeks.

The newly created regional district includes 10 school buildings and two or three other buildings that serve about 3,000 students.

Although one central office located in the former Dixfield Elementary School will serve the entire district, plans are to maintain use of the SAD 39 office in the Buckfield Town Hall for occasional meetings and other needs. No one will staff that office, however.