The Westbrook School Committee has come up with a budget that satisfies Mayor Bruce Chuluda’s request for an increase of only 4 percent over last year. Superintendent Stan Sawyer will present the budget to the public at the School Committee’s next regular meeting on April 12.

At a March 22 School Committee meeting, Sawyer presented a budget that the Finance Committee had fine-tuned over the previous weeks. The budget was about $400,000 less than a preliminary draft by the superintendent’s office submitted in February.

After the Finance Committee’s work, the new budget was roughly $57,000 over where it needed to be to fall under the mayor’s 4 percent increase target.

The School Committee adjusted the budget by about another $100,000, putting it roughly $40,000 under the number it needed to achieve. On April 12, Sawyer will present the final numbers, which should be somewhere around $27.8 million.

School Business Manager Michael Kucsma said this year’s budget was built from the ground up, with each school setting its own budget and moving up from there. However, he said it differed because this year each school attempted to keep their budget increases to 4 percent or less.

“We really never had a target (before),” he said. “This year with the mayor providing us with the 4 percent target, it gave us something for everybody to work towards.”

Kucsma said each principal drew up a budget, and then he and Sawyer met with each of them to discuss the budget drawn up for that school. “We ask them a lot of questions and fine tune (the budget),” he said. Each school differed based on its needs-one school needed new furniture, another a new PA system-but most were around the 4 percent increase in their budgets.

Sawyer will present the budget to the School Committee at its next meeting on April 12 at 7 p.m. in room 114 at Westbrook High School. The meeting is open to the public.