Each piece of Wiscasset’s school budget offer picked up majority support from the town budget committee May 12. The panel recommended passage of the $8.9 million proposal that goes to voters May 25.

The special town meeting on the school budget starts at 6 p.m. at Wiscasset Middle High School, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said. Wilmot met with the budget committee about the proposal for the first time since the school committee approved it. She noted that the only change since her last visit to the budget panel was the removal of $27,132 toward the school resource officer’s pay.

That line was dropped from the school budget after selectmen chose to make it a separate funding question on the June 14 ballot, Wilmot told the committee.

The school budget is proposed to hike six percent over this year’s. However, many of the panel’s questions centered on items that are not in the budget offer.

Chairman Cliff Hendricks asked about the middle high school’s parking lot as well as the stairs from it to the ball fields.

Repairs to the stairs and nearby benches will be done in-house, and hopefully be mostly done before school is out, John Merry, facilities and transportation director, said. But other items, including asbestos abatement for flooring at Wiscasset Elementary School and replacing deteriorated, 13-foot-tall panels in the middle high school gym, were much higher priorities than the parking lot, he said. Those made it into next year’s budget; the repairs to the lot did not, he said.

“Not that a driveway doesn’t affect functionality ... but we weren’t prepared to go there this year. We wanted to keep the increase down as much as we could.”

Merry serves on the budget committee but abstained from the night’s voting due to his school department job.

The energy audit the school committee just ordered could result in energy savings projects that go a long way toward meeting buildings’ needs, according to Wilmot and Merry. Wilmot said the energy savings help fund the projects, as they did in Lisbon, her prior employer.

A planned new capital reserve fund will also aid facilities, Wilmot said. State law requires a capital plan to go with the fund; she and Merry will develop one with long and short-term goals, Wilmot said.

“I acknowledge that we’ve got issues across our facilities that need to be addressed,” she told the committee.

In response to a question from member Kristin Draper, Wilmot said the elementary school has enough classrooms, but that a number of options could be looked at if enrollment climbs higher than projected. School departments look at everything from moving a grade to another building, to adding portable classrooms or reorganizing instruction, she said. None of those measures are in the next budget, she added.

Member Joe Marshall asked why the budget proposal does not reflect federal aid for special education. Departments apply for those funds over the summer, Wilmot said.

Marshall abstained from the panel’s votes on the special education budget and the total budget. He voted with fellow members in supporting passage of the other funding questions voters take up at the May 25 meeting.

The committee meets next at 6 p.m. June 9 at the municipal building.