JAY – A three-year wage freeze and a part-time superintendent were among ideas presented Thursday night to lower costs to get a school budget passed on Aug. 21.

At least 740 voters, the number who voted on the nearly $10 million budget package June 12, need to cast ballots on a revised budget Aug. 21 or it fails, regardless of whether the articles pass, Superintendent Robert Wall said. If the budget is not approved, officials may not be able to open schools, he said.

An article being added to the next warrant asks residents to authorize selectmen to transfer up to $1.6 million from the undesignated fund so schools can operate until a budget is approved.

Voters authorized selectmen to transfer up to $500,000 for school operations until a budget passes, but Wall said that money won’t go far. Summer pay for custodians will be more than $100,000, he said, and as soon as school resumes, they’ll have another major staff payroll.

A school system is “a personnel-driven organization, and the services we provide depend on quality personnel,” Wall said.

A revised budget will be presented at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, at the middle school for votes by the School Committee and the Budget Committee.

More than 30 people attended Thursday night’s School Committee workshop to discuss the budget and suggest possible cuts, including having a part-time superintendent, a three-year salary freeze, the curriculum director position, maintenance projects, curriculum, transportation, food service, testing and prekindergarten. The latter cost is $72,000 to educate 34 pupils, but Jay will be reimbursed $26,000 of it, Wall said.

It was agreed that moving fourth-graders to the middle school to save $97,000 would not be considered.

Wall issued a freeze on purchasing supplies and materials and halted summer maintenance projects after voters refused to raise an additional $2 million locally for education and authorize the School Committee to spend $9.96 million for education.

The budget was $504,000 less than this fiscal year’s budget and eliminated or reduced several teaching and administrative positions, Wall said.

Two additional articles that failed June 12 – one to buy a school bus and the other to fund adult education – will not be brought back for a vote, Wall said.

Suggested reasons for the budget rejection were:

• negative wording on the warrant article pertaining to why the system exceeded the state’s essential programs and services model by $1.8 million;

• not enough positive news printed in the newspaper, just the press stirring the pot;

• no newsletter sent home to residents explaining the budget and reminding them to vote;

• revaluation of properties in town that increased values on residential property;

• state education subsidy figures not presented on time;

• misconception of budget information;

• not enough reductions in administration;

• giving nonunion personnel, including the superintendent, 3 percent raises at the same meeting when they eliminated staff members; and

• the Budget Committee not giving a recommendation on several school articles. The latter is required by the committee’s bylaws to give no recommendation if a majority doesn’t reach a consensus.