ORANGE — The Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District is looking at a nearly 5% increase in its budget if the proposed figures survive the Annual Town Meetings of the four towns the district serves.

The proposed fiscal year 2024 budget of $15.5 million is 4.97%, or $738,341, higher than that of the current year. Elizabeth Teahan-Zielinski, superintendent of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional and Union 73 school districts, and Michele Tontodonato, director of finance and operations, led a budget presentation during a public hearing held in Mahar’s media center last week.

“We will vote on this budget, or one that is very similar, on April 13,” Mahar School Committee Chair Peter Cross said as the public hearing adjourned at 6:52 p.m.

There is a proposed 29% increase in general education spending. While the salary line item for instructional paraprofessionals would go down by $25,527, the salaries of teachers would increase from $2.8 million to just more than $3 million. Guidance counselors’ salaries would go up $17,233.

The proposed figures for special education constitute a 22.7% hike, to $3.5 million. Most line items would be level-funded or see modest increases.

Spending on special education tuition at non-public schools would jump from $683,176 to $860,275. Cross explained in a phone interview that the school district is legally required to pay the tuition of any student opting to attend a non-public school, such as a school for the deaf or blind or Doctor Franklin Perkins School, a school in Lancaster for students in need of social, emotional and behavioral support. State public education law guarantees a “free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment” to students ages 3 to 21, regardless of disability.

“If [a different school] is the best fit for them ... then we’re obligated to do that,” Cross explained.

In the proposed budget, special education tuition costs for public schools would increase from $167,387 to $194,837. The pay for teachers in special education classrooms would increase from $687,567 to $730,950.

The proposed FY24 budget also has an 18.6% increase for athletics. Most of this is reflected in a $23,725 increase for transportation and a $25,820 jump in coaching salaries.

The figures proposed for facilities and maintenance are 7.9% higher than that of this year. The biggest spike, of $65,000, is for heating oil.

Despite some large increases, the overall budget as a whole is up only 5% because Mahar is poised to receive $6 million in Chapter 70 state aid, which Tontodonato said is $373,274 higher than what the district received in the current year. Cross further noted that $100,000 had been trimmed from the budget’s first draft.

Transportation spending would decrease 2% due to the school district’s contract with Swift River Bus Co.

Teahan-Zielinski stressed at last week’s public hearing that residents’ wallets are always in mind when budgets are calculated and proposed.

“We have to squeeze every penny out of our budget,” Teahan-Zielinski said. “These are taxpayers’ dollars. We are well aware of that.”

After the Mahar School Committee votes on the proposed figures, at least three of the district’s four member towns must individually pass the budget at their respective Annual Town Meetings for it to be adopted.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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