The Gorham School Committee voted unanimously, 7-0, on Wednesday, April 8, in support of a $60.5 million school spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The budget rises $2.9 million from the present $57.5 million. Nicole Yeo-Fisher, school committee chair, recognized in the meeting that any increase directly impacts the taxpayers.

“We approached this with responsibility, care, and thoughtfulness in respect to our community,” Yeo-Fisher said. “It is not a budget built on wants.”

As the school plan stands now, it would raise the portion of the town’s tax rate to support education by 85 cents per thousand dollars of valuation. It would raise taxes on a home assessed at $500,000 by $423, according to school figures, and represents an 8.9% increase.

The state subsidy for Gorham education is expected to jump to $26.4 million from this year’s $24.8 million, marking an increase of nearly $1.6 million.

Superintendent Heather Perry is scheduled to deliver the school committee’s approved budget to Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak on April 15. Perry said at Wednesday’s meeting there are “multiple steps” remaining in the budget approval process.

The school committee will meet with town councilors in a joint workshop April 28 to discuss school spending. On May 12, Town Council will conduct a public hearing preceding a vote on both the municipal and school budgets.

The council has the authority to pare the school budget, but can not dictate what to axe and will decide an amount to send to voters in a validation referendum on June 9. Yeo-Fisher described the budget as needs-built. Michelle Littlefield, school committee vice chair, said she is firmly in support of the budget and asked town councilors and residents to also approve it.

“This budget represents the lowest operation increase we’ve requested since 2022,” Littlefield read in her prepared statement.

She said the committee is asking for a 4.95% increase in operational funding that does not include funds earmarked for capital improvement projects.

School committee member Jeff Ballard said the budget process was s difficult one for him. “There’s no room in our budget to make meaningful cuts,” Ballard said. “This is a bare bones budget.”

Another school committee member, Lowansa Tompkins, said it’s not everything they want and wished there was “more money to throw at it.”

Gorham voters in 2024 narrowly approved a $53.4 million school budget by four votes and then it survived a recount by two votes.