POLAND — The RSU 16 school committee was advised Monday to expect a first glimpse of next year’s school budget proposal in two weeks.

Superintendent Tina Meserve said she has asked the district’s school principals and department heads to submit their requests for what she termed their “maintenance of effort” budgets in time for discussion on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

That’s when the district’s top administrators are scheduled to meet with the RSU 16 budget committee — composed of five of district’s school board members and representatives from the Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland town budget committees — to begin the formal budget approval process.

Mechanic Falls and Poland officials have named their representatives, Bonnie Payette and Erland Torrey, respectively, with Michelle Arsenault named Poland’s alternate. Minot officials are scheduled to appoint their representative Jan. 21.

Meserve gave a detailed explanation of how the Department of Education determines the amount of support the state will provide to individual school districts.

While explaining how the state figures subsidy levels, Meserve noted that the district’s three towns are contributing their fair share.

“We’re just about where we ought to be, in terms of the support for education by our local towns,” Meserve said.

In other business, the school committee reviewed Information Technology Director Linda Chaisson’s proposal for selling the remainder of the district’s old laptop computers.

The district already has sold 315 of the old Apple MacBook laptops at $100 per laptop to RSU staff and distributed 285 laptops to the district’s schools.

Chaisson’s plan calls for giving the district’s staff first crack at the 229 remaining Apple MacBook laptops at $100 per laptop and, after a week, opening the sale up to high school students. If any remain after an additional week, middle students will be given their opportunity.

The school committee also approved Poland Regional High School Principal Cari Medd’s proposal to revise health and physical education credit requirements for incoming freshmen and approved hiring Carol Brocker of Mechanic Falls as the district’s school nurse. Brocker will be based at the high school.

The board authorized Assistant Superintendent Kim Brant to advertize a part-time mechanic position to work on the district’s bus fleet.

Brant explained that, according to Transportation Director Tom Kelly’s estimates, the move to hire the additional mechanic will be at least fiscally neutral — and could well save the district money.

Mechanic Falls resident Jessica Smith asked the board to give serious consideration to funding a study of security at district schools. Smith said she was not convinced that the schools have done all they can to ensure student safety and suggested an independent entity should take a look at school security.