The latest, $9.45 million version of Wiscasset’s next school budget wipes away a 1.36 percent tax hike. The flat tab took two hours to reach in a workshop April 20. The panel votes on the budget offer at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 27 in the Wiscasset Middle High School library.

“Boy, that’s a seller right there,” member Eugene Stover said about the zero-increase on taxes.

Voters get the offer at a special town meeting tentatively set for May 15; the budget that results faces a final vote at the polls June 13. Talks Thursday night centered on contingency, energy, changes at WMHS to add grade six in 2018-19, and whether or not to leave in $49,735 for a second pre-kindergarten teacher.

The committee took out the job, saying it was only in there for the hoped-for addition of Alna and Westport Island pre-kindergartners; school officials learned April 19, Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 is seeking a deal with Edgecomb on pre-K. The committee considered leaving in the funding in case enrollment topped the state’s 16-student limit per pre-K teacher. Twelve children are registered for fall, but the number could change due to families moving in or out of town, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said.

Member Chelsea Taylor doubted enrollment would rise to the point a second class is needed. If a seventeenth student appears, the department could ask the Maine Department of Education for a waiver, Wilmot said. “There’s no guarantee” the state would grant it, she said. During the teacher discussion and at other points, Vice Chairman Glen Craig favored cuts. The committee could find a way to fund the items later if needed, he said.

Craig opposed funding $69,500 toward the $1.75 million project voters have yet to decide. He, other members and Wilmot predicted residents will pass it, but if they don’t, that’s money that didn’t have to be raised, but was, he argued. Craig said he might get up at the special town meeting and argue against the $69,500, as a taxpayer; Chairman Michael Dunn and others said that was his right, but they urged him not to. It would undermine the committee’s work, Taylor said.

Regardless of disagreements en route to a budget, the committee is supposed to be united in supporting it at town meeting, Stover said. Craig said he would do further research, then decide what if anything he will say on the item.

Wilmot explained what would happen if the money is budgeted and then voters reject the project. She said she and Facilities and Transportation Director John Merry would make a list of priorities for the committee to consider spending the $69,500 on, starting with one the department has no choice on. If the project doesn’t happen, the department owes Siemens of Scarborough nearly $15,000 due to a letter of intent, and Siemens may need to tack on other costs for the firm’s preliminary work, she said. The other priorities will be made among buildings’ needs the project would have addressed, such as a furnace issue at the central office and the lack of temperature controls at WMHS, Wilmot said.

Craig said if the $69,500 was removed, the committee could tap contingency as needed. Other members questioned how items the committee already knows about could be considered emergencies later.

Member Jason Putnam repeatedly voiced frustration with Craig’s proposed cuts. “I sure hope your wife doesn’t have to ask you for money,” he told Craig. Putnam later said he was joking. Putnam called Craig relentless and then, a bully; moments later, Putnam said: “I take the word back.” He said Craig wasn’t a bully but was displaying bully-like behaviors.

Craig said he wasn’t a bully, by any means; finding savings is how a budget is made, he said at another point.

The panel kept in the $69,500 and all $18,000 for Merry to prepare WMHS for sixth graders. Members looked at cutting some or all of the $18,000, since the latest plan is to move the grade in 2018-19, not next fall. Wilmot said Merry felt he might be able to get by with $12,000 to $15,000; Merry won’t spend anything he doesn’t have to, Stover said in support of keeping all $18,000 in the budget.

The committee cut a possible $50,000 for contingency to about $16,000, to remove the remaining, less than one-percent tax hike. Wilmot said she would run the numbers and plug in the exact, $16,000-plus figure that makes a flat tax burden. The figure will grow contingency to $66,000-plus.