WATERVILLE — The Waterville Board of Education on Monday voted unanimously to approve a proposed $34.2 million school budget for 2025-26.

The school proposal represents a 5.97% increase, or $1.9 million, over the current $32.2 million budget. But the schools get revenues from tuition and state subsidy in the amount of $22.98 million, so school officials are not asking for $1.9 million in taxes, school Finance Director Paula Pooler said; instead they are asking the city for $144,782, a 1.31% increase over what was raised in property taxes in the current school budget.

Pooler said 85% to 87% of the school budget is salaries and benefits. Health insurance costs also have increased.

The board must take a second vote to finalize the proposal. The vote will come after the City Council takes a final vote on the municipal and school budgets sometime this summer.

Waterville School Superintendent Peter Hallen said after the meeting that he thinks it is a responsible budget.

“Since we started presenting to the board in December, not much has changed, so what’s in the budget is what we proposed — what we need to run the school district — and the board thus far has supported it,” Hallen said.

“I think it’s fiscally responsible and meets the needs of the school and also looks out for the taxpayers at the same time,” Pooler said.

At a City Council meeting May 7, city Finance Director Christina Therrien said the schools did an excellent job producing a proposed budget with a 1.31% increase.

Councilors are scheduled to take the first of two votes needed on the proposed municipal and school budgets on May 20.

The municipal budget, not including a proposal to run a third ambulance and hire more workers for that, is $24.1 million and represents a 3.4% increase over the current budget. The city’s tax rate is $20 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation and, if the budget proposal passes as is, the tax rate would increase to $20.64. Most of the increase would be from union and employee contracts, Therrien said.

But if the council decides to approve a budget that includes hiring firefighter-emergency medical workers to operate a third ambulance, with two workers on the ambulance per four shifts, the tax rate could increase, depending on whether the council includes cuts and makes other changes, such as possibly increasing code enforcement fees. The increase also depends on whether firefighters are hired at the top of the pay scale and how many the city is able to hire.