OXFORD – The SAD 17 school board approved spending at three elementary schools, while looking at a possible budget cut of $5.6 million should the Palesky tax cap pass this November.

The board authorized a bond anticipation note for interim funding of the new Paris Elementary School. The 14-month loan of $2 million will be from People’s Heritage Bank at 2.18 percent interest.

Spending from the contingency fund was approved for the West Paris and Otisfield elementary schools. The operations committee reported that $3,700 would be required to replace gaskets in the boiler at the West Paris school.

A new water fountain will be purchased for the Otisfield school in response to concerns of parents and Otisfield selectmen that children did not have adequate access to cold drinking water. Superintendent Mark Eastman explained that because the school is getting more use in summer, more people are using the school’s single fountain.

Funds approved for the fountain, which included installation, came to $600.

Eastman went on to discuss the possible impact of the Palesky tax cap to the district. Should the school budget go unchanged, “in most towns there will be no property tax revenue left to fund any municipal expenses,” Eastman said. In order to avoid asking towns to give all of their taxes directly to the schools, the district plans to cut its budget to just over half of the allowable tax rate, if the tax cap passes.

Eastman presented two possible strategies for making the budget cuts. The first aims to minimize the impact on “essential academic services,” defined as language arts, math, science, and social studies. It also acts in accordance with school safety and federal and state education law whenever possible, as well as maintaining local elementary schools.

Possible cuts under this strategy would include all athletics and co-curricular activities, staff development, elementary school guidance programs, and non-core academics such as art, music and physical education. In addition to these and other cuts, the district would have to cut 19 teachers and eliminate kindergarten in order to reduce the budget by $5.6 million.

“All of these things put us out of compliance with state law,” Eastman noted.

The second strategy would “minimize the impact on all programs” by reducing the current 180-day school year by 50 days. Eastman said that although this strategy “would allow access to all programs, not just core areas,” it would violate “a variety of state laws.”

Eastman called these possible cuts “a series of very poor choices,” stressing that these were just ideas and not a budget.