BETHEL — The SAD 44 board Monday scheduled a districtwide budget vote for 7 p.m. May 28 in the Helen C. Berry Auditorium of Telstar High School.

The proposed $10,371,000 budget for 2013-14 is nearly 4 percent higher than the current fiscal year. 

Superintendent David Murphy said the proposed figure includes the state’s share of teacher retirement of $125,000. The Legislature has not yet acted on whether to require districts to pay the retirement funds.

An informational brochure on the 2013-14 budget will be mailed to residents of Andover, Bethel, Greenwood, Newry and Woodstock by the end of the week, Murphy said.

Also on May 28, voters will also act on the adult and community education budget of $152,259, and on a request to move $500,000 from the district’s undesignated account into the capital reserve fund. The budget figure decided May 28 will got to a referendum June 11 in each town.

The board also agreed to purchase MacBook Air laptops for about 150 seventh- and eighth-graders under the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Although the laptops come at no cost to the district, Murphy said an $18 fee per laptop must be paid to make up the difference between the state’s recommendation for Hewlett Packard laptops and staying with the Apple brand it has used for more than eight years.

With the new computers at the beginning of the upcoming school year, all kindergartners will have iPads, and virtually all students in grades three through 12 will have laptops, he said. Some of the laptops to be replaced by the MacBook Airs will be reassigned to the first- and second-grade classrooms.

As a follow-up to the state Department of Education giving letter grades for each public school, Murphy said he will soon begin meeting with selectmen, town managers and members of the community to explain what those grades mean.

Telstar High School and Andover Elementary School got F’s, while Crescent Park Elementary School, Woodstock Elementary School and Telstar Middle School received C’s. So far, plans are to meet with Bethel selectmen May 20 and Greenwood selectmen June 4.

Murphy has met with the staffs of all schools, except the middle school. The principals of each school are meeting with parent groups.