New state aid figures for Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit could mean tax relief for the district’s eight towns. It also could help keep music at Whitefield Elementary School.

The district is now projected to get $328,659 more in state aid than previously projected, Superintendent Howard Tuttle said July 3. On July 2, the finance committee decided to propose all of the additional money go to offsetting taxes in the next budget, Tuttle said.

The committee is also proposing putting more money toward supplies than in the budget that lost at the polls June 28; there had been concern that supplies were being cut too deeply, Tuttle said.

The failed budget bid had cut out a part-time music teacher at the Whitefield school, but the position is back in, under the committee’s proposal that will go to the district’s full board, Tuttle said.

In other changes, the committee is calling for $150,000 less for vocational education, as a result of costs being picked up the state, the superintendent said.

The district board will consider the committee’s proposal July 11 at Palermo Consolidated School. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m., Tuttle said.

If the board approves it, the proposal voters will get requires 4.62 percent more in taxes than last year’s budget did, Tuttle said. Last month’s failed budget proposal called for about 7.6 percent more from the town s than last year.

Tuttle said he was very pleased with the state’s new numbers; they will help preserve programs and class sizes, he said.

At the July 11 meeting, the board will also consider a proposed date of August 13 for a regional budget meeting and a September 10 district-wide budget referendum, Tuttle said.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com