The freeze is on in the Wiscasset School Department.

School Committee Chairman Steve Smith and Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot announced Dec. 17, the budget has been frozen to help ensure the money lasts the school year.

No surprise expense triggered the move; school departments often take the measure as they head into the winter months, Wilmot said.

“It’s a monitoring tool,” she said in a break in Thursday’s meeting at Wiscasset Middle High School.

Teachers and other staff will keep getting paid, along with bills for the costs to run the buildings. Sports and other extracurricular activities that have already been approved will go on as planned, Wilmot said.

So will a field trip if it, too, has already been approved, Wilmot said; new requests can still be made for field trips and other spending, but approval will be on a case-by-case basis.

While the current budget is on ice, Smith brought up some possible new spending in the next budget, including further work on the Wiscasset Elementary School playground. Some of the items the committee had expected to re-use from Wiscasset Primary School may not be an option because they were part of a Head Start program, committee members said.

Playground additions for the elementary school’s pre-kindergarten students would also suit kindergarten students and likely first-graders and some second-graders, Wilmot said. Fencing or another boundary will also be needed, to meet state rules for pre-kindergarten, she said.

“I think that’s something that we as a board missed, in all honesty, when we were putting together the playground plan,” Smith said about the pre-kindergarten needs.

In other areas, Smith said he wants the committee to look at proposing an after-school music program such as a jazz band. “One of the challenges is the schedules during the day, to get time for students to do their music programs,” he said.

A recent holiday chorus and band concert sounded great, despite changes the music program has faced this fall, Smith said. Wiscasset Middle High’s new music teacher Kim Brewer started work just weeks before the concert.

“I really was very much encouraged by how the music program has come together, with all that’s swirled around it this year,” Smith said.

“I really would hate to see music and art get shunted to the side as we look at all the priorities. So I think this is really time to address those things and how we can do them in the most affordable way possible, and give our support to the parents and kids and the music program to reach the goals they’re trying to reach.”

Committee member Glen Craig took issue with Smith raising the band idea as a potential budget item; the town has trust funds that could cover an expense like that, Craig said. “We cannot pick winners and losers of what we like or don’t like ... I understand your passion for (band) ... But my opinion is that the band does not need to be onto the budget at this point, because we haven’t exhausted these other sources,” he said.

“I want it in the budget, and we can discuss it,” Smith told Craig. Smith noted he has also talked about wanting to address science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and art programs, along with the playground. “I’m talking about all student programming ... I’m not talking about what I like.”

In results of Wilmot’s recent public survey on the next budget, respondents gave top priority to the range and variety of programming, followed, in order, by instructional materials; cost-saving steps such as projects for energy savings; support staff; teacher-student ratio; health, safety, social and emotional services; technology; maintenance; professional development; extra-curricular activities; and communications.

The survey, offered online and on paper, drew 136 participants, Wilmot said.

Students honored

Wiscasset Elementary Principal Mona Schlein announced fifth-graders Madison Westrich and Mae Benner and sixth-graders L.J. Travis and Peter Young as November students of the month.

Wiscasset Middle High Principal Peg Armstrong announced seventh-graders Gabby Leavitt and Matthew Eckert as first quarter honorees, along with eighth-graders Cara Viele and Dylan Young; freshman Nick Clark; sophomore Nick DeLong; junior Gabby Chapman and seniors Samantha Arsenault and Trent Shorey.