A $33.5 million budget that restores two teaching positions that were slated for elimination was approved by the School Administrative District 11 Board of Education.

Board members voted to restore two teaching positions that administrators had initially proposed cutting earlier in the budget process: a science teacher at Gardiner Regional Middle School and a first grade teacher at Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School.

Parents, teachers and some board members said cutting a first grade teacher at the elementary school would leave class sizes at 21 in each of the remaining two classes. That’s too high, they said, for such young students at the crucial start of their educations.

Ashley Carter, a first grade teacher in the school district, said with 21 students in each class, teachers won’t have enough time to give students the attention they need, especially in times of increasing social and emotional needs. Carter has two boys in the community, one of whom will enter first grade at the Pittston-Randolph school.

“We’re talking about 6- and 7-year-olds building foundational skills, like learning to read and gaining the confidence they need to succeed in school,” Carter said.

She said if students don’t get off to a good start in first grade, it could take many years to overcome.

Returning funding to the budget for the first grade teaching position, combined with the restoration of a science teacher position at the middle school, would increase the budget from a 1.75% to a 2.16% over the current budget.

And it would increase the amount of funds coming from taxpayers in the four district communities by 6.2%, or $868,000.

Some board members worry that may be too much, noting the budget, in recent years, has been passed by voters by decreasing margins.

Michelle Tucker, a board member from Gardiner, said class sizes in the district’s schools are well below national averages. While she said she appreciated that students took an interest this year and spoke out about the budget, that doesn’t necessarily mean the board should do exactly what the students wanted.

“It’s a mistake to say this is what students want, we have to do that,” Tucker said. “We have to make smart decisions to support our constituents, our taxpayers. There are people in this community struggling to buy toilet paper.”

About 100 students walked out of Gardiner Area High School April 14 to demonstrate against cutting a teacher and assistant principal from the high school.

Gardiner board member Joanne O’Brien agreed to restore the two teaching positions to the budget, and also, unsuccessfully, sought to add back a social studies teaching position slated to be cut at the high school. She said the district should look at areas other than classroom teachers for potential cuts, including school sports.

Kiera Blodgett, a student representative to the board, said she thought it would be more important for the first graders to have an additional teacher, and thus smaller class sizes there, than high school students as, she noted, “we’re older and we’re better equipped to handle social and emotional” issues than first graders.

The budget was boosted by the district, unexpectedly, after being notified the afternoon of the board’s April 16 vote on it that it would receive a $97,000 one-time increase in funding from the state. It was part of funds targeting districts with a large number of economically disadvantaged students.

Caputo, Tucker and Becky Fles, board chairwoman, voted against the revised budget.

“What this means, board members, is you need to go into your communities and you need to sell this budget,” Fles said after the vote. “We have to be ready to understand what people can and can’t afford to do. And if they can’t afford to do it, we don’t want them to move out of our community because they can’t afford to pay their taxes.”