The state Department of Revenue Administration will not support the School Board’s plan to create additional lanes and a traffic light on Route 101 at Nashua Road.

The state Department of Revenue Administration reviewed the proposed warrant article for the Route 101/Nashua Road part of the high school secondary access road project and said it is the department’s opinion that “the Bedford School District is without statutory authority to make such an appropriation.”

The Department of Revenue Administration is not empowered to prevent the School Board from placing any warrant articles on ballots, according to a Jan. 7 letter from the department, but it is authorized to reject unlawful appropriations when tax rates are set.

Under state education statutes, safe access is required for school sites, but there is no authority of boards to build or maintain roads.

The School Board agreed to go along with the Department of Revenue Administration’s opinion and will present a warrant article on the March 11 ballot for a secondary emergency access road to the high school for $170,000, plus the cost of land acquisition which is still unknown, said Superintendent of Schools Tim Mayes.

“We hope to have a signed agreement before Monday (Jan. 14),” said Mayes.

Board members may now ask the Town Council to support the plan with town money.

The secondary access road, the construction of additional lanes and traffic light on Route 101 at Nashua Road would have cost about $3 million.

The plan, which was part of the proposed secondary access road to the high/middle school, was proposed by the School Board as a package to ease traffic near the site.

“I am a little disappointed and was hoping we could take this further,” said School Board member David Sacks. “Let’s see if it’s something the town council would like to pursue.”

On Monday Jan. 14, the School Board will hold a public hearing on the School District budget and bond at 7 p.m. in the Bedford High School theater. Budget

The 2008-09 school budget is $55,051,097, a 2.6 percent or $1,403,872 increase over last year’s budget.

The school budget was trimmed $132,269 from the Dec. 17 meeting when the paving of half of the parking lots and roadways at Peter Woodbury School, as well as other cuts were made to the budget.

The School Board chose to remove items from the budget that would not directly affect education, said Mayes.

Other warrant articles besides the secondary emergency access road include salary contracts for teachers, support staff and custodians.

The budget includes a 39.3 percent or $65,818 increase in technology costs over last year.

According to Chief Financial Officer Mark Conrad, more than $40,000 of that technology cost increase will go toward a mobile cart holding 25 laptops with wireless Internet computers for McKelvie School.

The budget also includes a decrease in start-up costs for the middle and high schools from $717,700 to $368,814.

A presentation outlining the school budget and bond will be shown at the public hearing on Jan. 14. The presentation will also be available that evening on the School District’s Web site www.sau25.com, said School Board Chairman Cindy Chagnon.