BIDDEFORD — On Thursday, Biddeford voters approved a $32.7 million education budget for the 2014 fiscal year, to begin July 1.

In a 762-614 vote, residents voted for the K-12 budget that is $518,000, or 1.6 percent, greater than the current year budget, which ends June 30.

Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Ray said he’s “very happy” the budget was approved in the first go-round, unlike last year when it took four times to get an affirmative vote.

Ray said he thinks voters approved the budget because “we were clear and transparent about what was in the budget,” a process he says he plans to continue in the future.

In addition, said Ray, “I think the people realized that any further reductions would be very harmful to the kids.”

Despite voting for the budget, voters overwhelming said the budget was too high.

In answer to a ballot question asking those who didn’t approve the budget whether they thought the school budget was too high or too low, 603 said that it was too high, while 82 said it was too low.

In addition, residents will continue to have the final say on the school budget for at least another three years. In a question asking whether residents wished to continue the budget validation referendum process, 885 voted yes with 442 voting no.

According to Ray, the vast majority of the increase in the new budget arises from costs over which the school district had no control.

This includes a $408,000 cost shift from the state to pay for Maine State Retirement for Biddeford’s school employees. In addition, a hike in health insurance added another $130,000 to the budget.

Without those increases, the budget would have been $30,000 lower than last year’s, said Business Manager Terry Gauvin.

Ray said he thinks voters recognized that the school department did a good job reducing expenses as much as possible before bringing forward a budget for their approval.

Through reorganization, new and reorganized contracts, and other strategies the department was able to save approximately $900,000, he said.

For instance, the department eliminated nearly 10 full-time equivalent positions and entered into a new snow plowing contract that is $130,000 less than before.

“Even though this vote won, we can’t get careless,” said Ray, as people are still concerned how increases in the school budget impact their property taxes.

In the future, “we still need to be diligent” about finding cost-savings and efficiencies, said the superintendent.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or [email protected].