GRAY — The SAD 15 budget meeting for Gray and New Gloucester voters will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at the Gray-New Gloucester High School cafetorium on Libby Hill Road.

Voter registration will begin at 6 p.m.; the meeting will start at 6:30.

It will be the first step in a two-part approval procedure to adopt a school budget for 2012-13.

A budget validation vote will be held Tuesday, June 12, in both communities, after the warrants are approved.

Voters will be asked to approve a budget of $21.15 million in 17 warrant articles.

The budget represents an increase of $697,775, or 3.4 percent, over the current year’s spending package of $20.45 million.

A separate article asks voters to approve $125,762 for adult education and to raise $53,000 as the local share.

Superintendent Bruce Beasley in a budget informational mailing said the spending plan reflects impacts from reductions from the federal jobs bill of $467,318, plus a reduction of Medicaid payments of $71,045 and a reduction in laptop insurance of $21,460.

Fuel costs are expected to increase by $77,000 and there is an anticipated $532,220 increase in salaries and benefits. These two increases account for nearly $610,000 of the proposed $697,775 increase.

General Purpose Aid to Education from state coffers is up $396,378 and savings in copier costs is $25,000, for example.

Enrollment at SAD 15 is at an all-time high. It increased from 1,937 students in 2010-11 to 2,036 in 2011-12.

And, the pre-kindergarten program this year has 56 participants, with an increase anticipated of 90 students next year.

Gray’s share of the budget is 64.99 percent, based on a 2011 state valuation of $891.8 million.

New Gloucester’s share of the budget is anticipated at 35.01 percent, based on a 2011 state valuation of $480.35 million, with an anticipated mill rate increase of 17 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.