Auburn school officials and an audience of about 30 residents breezed through the slim school district warrant on Feb. 2 during the deliberative session of School District Meeting that generated no amendments and only a few questions.

“It’s pretty cut and dry, and (the proposed budget) is less than the default budget, too,” said local resident Don Dollard.

As the meeting began, moderator Jim Andrus told residents that this is the first meeting under the new SB-2 format, which was approved last year. Of the four items on the warrant, the proposed budget of $10,744,514 generated the most questions, and School Board member Kathi Porter said administrators and Budget Committee members alike strove to create a 2009-10 budget that would be “as conservative as possible.”

Overall, Porter said the budget has less than a 1 percent increase over the current budget, but local resident Dan Carpenter later pointed out that the amount of revenue taken in by the district had decreased sharply. The district took in an estimated $1,367,508 in revenue during the current budget year, while next year’s estimate drops by about $600,000 to $779,975.

Local resident Kathy Butts asked if there were any unforeseen changes due to the school’s addition of a new kindergarten, which began in September. Porter said that as of now, officials are expecting to add another half-day session of kindergarten in the coming year because of increased enrollment, but other than this, most of the predictions were on the mark.

Later, School Board member Robert Hayes explained a $50,000 request in a warrant article as an attempt to boost a “safety net” in the event that the district takes in a special education student requiring expensive programming needs. He said this consideration came about after Candia received a special education student who required some $150,000 worth of programming needs, and he said this type of unexpected expense can have “a devastating effect” on a budget.

Hayes said the $50,000 will be added to another $50,000 that was already allocated in 2003. The money will be drawn from the unexpended fund balance and will not increase the tax rate, he said.

The final article discussed was a plan to use about half of some $62,000 approved last year for an upcoming master plan study for the school district. School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said the $62,000 was approved last year in order for the district to look at its options after the failure of a proposal for two-town school near Route 101’s Exit 2.

But because of the economic downturn in 2008, Hobbs said the board opted not to look at any major plans, and instead chose to pursue the idea of a more generalized master plan.

She said the board will eventually look at enrollment figures and other data to look at what the future needs will be, and the final plan will focus on “a district- wide plan to give us some choices.”

The remained of the money allocated last year will go back to the town, she said.