DIXFIELD — While a loss of nearly $479,000 in state aid to education may be bad, it’s not as bad as it could have been.

Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10 Superintendent Tom Ward said Monday that the district was anticipating a cut of about $600,000 for the current school year due to a state budget shortfall.

“We started early with conservation efforts and projecting lines in the budget that can be covered,” he said.

The now-confirmed, so-called curtailment will reduce the amount of money that can be carried over to school year 2010-11, a year that Ward expects will be the most difficult ever.

For now, all 600 positions in the 3,000 pupil district will be retained until the end of the school year, thanks not only to fewer than expected state aid cuts, but also to about $150,000 more in Maine Care reimbursements than anticipated, which will be applied to the current school year. The district has also used federal stimulus money for the retention of some positions.

Next year will be very different.

As the school board gears up to begin the budget development process for the next school year in only a few weeks, Ward said every position and all programs will be closely scrutinized.

Although he cannot project who or what may be eliminated at this time, he said he expects a lower proposed budget than the $34.2 million operating budget adopted for the current year by district voters.

This is the first year of the newly merged district of the former SAD 43, SAD 21, SAD 39 and the town of Hanover. The district comprises three high schools, three middle schools, four elementary schools, and a special needs school.

In addition to developing a new budget for next year, Ward said negotiations will also begin to bring teachers from all three former districts under one labor contract.

When the three districts merged in July, salary scales and benefit packages were different in each region.

Ward said additional board meetings will be required to work on a 2010-11 budget soon after the new year begins. Those meetings are generally held on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at the central office in Dixfield.

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