Augusta Board of Education members approved a preliminary 9.2% increase in spending for the next fiscal year at a meeting earlier this month.

The budget cuts seven positions and adds two full-time and three part-time positions, primarily to serve Augusta’s growing multilingual student population. Overall, spending is up by about $3 million.

That budget now goes to the Augusta City Council, which will deliberate with board members and determine a final spending amount before residents vote on the budget later this spring.

Here are three takeaways on the board’s proposed budget.

POSITION CUTS, ADDITIONS

The budget approved by the board this month cuts seven positions, including four education techs, a study hall monitor at Cony High School and one high school science teacher.

Superintendent Michael Tracy said he hopes most of the positions will be cut through attrition — that is, through retirements or resignations, rather than layoffs.

Several teaching positions are being added to the budget, primarily to serve a growing number of students who are learning English. Three elementary school education techs and one teacher are proposed to be added to serve multilingual students.

“We’ve more than doubled in our (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and multilingual population in my four years here,” Tracy said. “We are now at over 260 students that are multilingual learners in the school department.”

Tracy said the state provides additional funds for those learners, but that “it never really covers the full cost.”

A re-integration specialist, tasked with addressing frequent absenteeism and training soft skills for some at-risk students, was added back in by the board after the position was initially proposed to be cut.

Position changes add up to a savings of about $425,000.

STATE vs. LOCAL FUNDING

Augusta schools will receive $65,000 less in the next fiscal year from the state, Tracy said, based on a formula that determines need by district.

That formula was created in 2005, and Tracy said he supports a bill that would modernize state funding.

Needs in the districts are changing, though, Tracy said, and local taxpayer funding would increase by about $3 million under the proposed budget.

HEALTH INSURANCE

As with every other school district and municipality in the state, Augusta is waiting for final health insurance costs.

Currently, the district has budgeted a 15% increase in health insurance for all covered employees. In past years, Tracy said the district has under-budgeted for health insurance — a nonnegotiable, fixed cost — and hopes to create savings for the district in budgeting for a full 15%. In the past two years, health insurance costs have jumped by 12% and just under 10%, respectively.

Final numbers are expected in early-to-mid April.

NEXT STEPS

The school department will now present its budget to the Augusta City Council, which, by the rules of the city charter, determines final spending levels for all departments.

In a budget workshop meeting earlier this month, Tracy said that, in preliminary conversations, some city councilors were “empathetic to the needs” of the district but “concerned with the amount of increase.”

If the council requires the school board to make cuts to the budget, the board will have discretion over where those cuts are made.

The school department ordinarily makes up about 40% of an Augusta resident’s tax bill. Residents will know the final tax rate by mid-June, after the City Council approved a final budget and voters approve a referendum on school spending.

Council members will hear the school department’s budget proposal at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Augusta City Center, 16 Cony St., Augusta.