After $131,000 in cuts and a preliminary vote by the budget committee on Wednesday, Dec. 13, the Salem School District’s 2007 budget is still an 8.5 percent increase from last year.

When school officials presented their $46.5 million budget to the budget committee earlier this month, they cited several factors that contributed to the budget’s increase, including special education and retirement costs.

Special education costs, one of the primary reasons for the 8.5 percent increase, will rise by more than $686,000 this year for the district, according to Superintendent Michael Delahanty.

Additionally, retirement costs rose by $512,000.

Delahanty and other school officials said they worked to draft a conservative budget but some things were beyond their control.

“We’re still not particularly happy with where the numbers are,” said school board Chairman Bernard Campbell.

Neither were some members of the budget committee.

Committee member Kathy Cote, who was a proponent of several cuts made to the budget at the preliminary vote, said she wants further cuts.

“I was disgusted with the whole shabang,” she said of the voting session. “I don’t understand what happened and why people didn’t make more cuts.”

Cote said the school board was setting itself up for failure in March when she suspects the budget will meet major opposition from voters.

“People will have no choice but to vote against it,” she said.

Despite Cote’s issues with the voting session, Peter Rayno, budget committee chairman, said the cuts that were made were those that were important.

“We’re obligated to make the cuts we feel necessary for the taxpayers while still allowing the school to provide a service,” he said.

Among the cuts made during the committee’s two-hour meeting, were a new $80,000 technology employee position and $1,300 for new art textbooks.

The committee will meet again in January to cast final votes on the budget and perhaps make more cuts.