NORWAY – Oxford Hills Technical School Director Dave Mason told people at Tuesday night’s SAD 17 budget hearing that the proposed $3.7 million for vocational education is a 1.1 percent net decrease from last year.

Fourteen residents from Norway and Paris, almost all of them school employees or officials, turned out for the hearing at the Rowe Elementary School.

Mason’s report noted that 53 percent of the tech school’s spending plan is for instructional salaries and program costs and 20.9 percent for the space they share with Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.

The school budget is part of the district’s overall $36.5 million budget for 2009-10.

Mason said all technical school programs will remain intact next year, pending verification of specific amounts of recovery funds in federal programs.

The proposed budget will meet a number of goals for the technical program, including national recertification of the automotive collision repair program and development of more study programs with the high school.

Additionally, the money will add e-commerce, hospitality and entrepreneurship classes to the business education program, and add classes to introduce freshmen to programs that will enable them to make better educational decisions. The school will also work with adult education officials to obtain a computerized placement test for technical school students going to post secondary education.

Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy and Curriculum Director Kathy Elkins outlined the SAD 17 proposed budget. It shows preliminary state funding decreasing by $797,779, based in part on the state’s calculated 13 percent jump in local property assessments.

The Budget Committee had requested no increases in local assessments but because the assessments are paid on a percentage basis, towns like Oxford and Norway will see an increase while others such as Otisfield will see a decrease in assessments.

Elkins said after the hearing that program reductions in the unified arts schedule will mean some loss of personnel reductions.

Officials said a question remains about the amount of federal funds for some district programs. Meanwhile grants are being pursued.

A SAD 17 budget hearing was also held Tuesday for Oxford and Otisfield residents at the Otisfield Community School.

The hearings continue Wednesday evening with meetings for West Paris and Hebron residents at Agnes Gray School in West Paris, and Waterford and Harrison residents at Waterford Memorial School. Both meetings begin at 7 p.m.

The Budget Committee will finalize the proposal April 29 before its presentation May 4 to the school board. The districtwide budget hearing and vote will be June 4, and the validation referendum June 9.