MINOT – Less than five months into the Minot Consolidated School’s fiscal year, the budget line for supplies has already been overspent, Union 29 Budget Director Gordon Murray told the School Committee on Tuesday night.

Murray explained that a number of factors are responsible, beginning with the fact that about $3,000 for paper products was never figured into the budget. Other factors were an unanticipated carpet mold problem in summer, and higher-than-expected costs for bringing in safe drinking water at $80 a week, Murray noted.

Murray said Minot’s new school bus was delivered Nov. 4, bringing the fleet to six. He recommends that the school department buy a new bus every year to keep the buses in optimal condition.

Minot’s bus routes, according to Murray, are quite long when compared with the rest of the state. The shortest bus route covers 80 miles per day and the others, with the exception of one route that covers 120 miles per day, range upward to 90 miles per day.

Head bus driver Dave Snell pointed out that the bus that logs 120 miles per day is the one used to make the noon kindergarten run.

Murray also told the board that a feasibility study on drawing water for Minot Consolidated School from the well near the town garage is continuing, but he was not sure when a decision would be made. Using the well near the school would require an expensive purification system to take care of arsenic and radon problems.

The School Committee reviewed a proposed formula for sharing costs with Mechanic Falls and Poland for the Union 29 office. According to the new formula, which is adjusted annually to account for changes in student populations and total property valuations, Minot would pay 21 percent of the Union 29 costs, Mechanic Falls would pay 22 percent and Poland 57 percent.

Minot’s share for the current year is 20.3 percent.

The new cost-sharing formula will be acted on at the December meeting of the boards from the three towns.

The evening’s educational presentation featured third-graders Elizabeth Callahan, Jillian Dumont and Faith Ide reading their original short stories.

The committee approved the schedule for preparing the school department’s 2005-2006 budget. Workshops were set for Jan. 6, 13 and 20. The new budget will be brought before town meeting voters the first Saturday in March.