Thanks to a downward revision of health insurance costs, the Regional School Unit 14 school board has recommended a budget that would increase district spending $1,034,855, or 2.52 percent.

The school board’s revised budget figure represents a $867,345 decrease in spending compared to Superintendent Sandy Prince’s proposed budget, which would have increased school district spending next year by $1,902,200, or about 4.63 percent.

That’s because Prince’s budget projected a worst-case health insurance cost increase, according to district officials. The school board’s budget includes a 1.6 percent, or $83,370, increase in total health insurance costs. Prince, who said he could not recall the initial assumed increase in his proposed budget, said his projections were based on past experience.

“We just speculate, typically, what we think the health insurance will be,” he said. “It vacillates. It’s been up to 10 percent before and now we’re down to this percent.”

School board chairwoman Marge Govoni said district officials do not go out of their way to promote the figures in the superintendent’s budget, as they are typically on the high end.

“We like to look at worst-case scenarios at the beginning,” Govoni said. “Nobody likes surprises that take you up. It’s nice to have surprises that will give you a reduction. This is why when we first come out with the budget we’re a little reluctant to present it to the public, because it’s usually a real gloom-and-doom type of thing. It’s usually higher than what it’s going to be.”

The revised budget represents an estimated $106 tax increase for a $250,000 Windham home, and a $5 tax increase for a $250 Raymond home. According to Govoni, the state’s formula for calculating education aid is the primary driver of the discrepancy between the two towns.

Prince said the proposed increase is primarily driven by the rising costs of labor, utilities and insurance, along with a mix of staff hires and work time increases.

Since consolidation in 2008, the school budget has increased an average of 1.48 percent annually. The school board’s recommended budget would be the third-largest increase since district consolidation. This year’s 3.52 percent budget increase, a $1.4 million increase in spending, was the biggest approved increase since consolidation. The budget decreased during the first two years of district consolidation, but has steadily grown since, increasing by 2.75 percent in fiscal year 2012, 2.63 percent in fiscal year 2013, and 1.87 percent in fiscal year 2014. According to Prince, district spending per student during the 2013-2014 school year was $396 lower than the state average.

Since the recession, class sizes have increased as the district has cut the equivalent of 71 staff positions, according to Prince. In order to reverse the trend of growing class sizes, the school board’s budget recommends $363,229 in new spending on staff hours and added or restored positions. The new spending on staff constitutes about 35 percent of the proposed budget increase. The budget also proposed the elimination of a Raymond Elementary School kindergarten teacher position and a Jordan-Small Middle School instructional interventionist position, representing a $59,970 spending cut.

The proposed budget calls for hiring new full-time instructors and increases working hours across the district. New or restored positions would include a district-wide technology integrator, a social worker, high school volleyball and swim coaches, and two teachers at Windham Middle School. Teacher working hours would be increased at Jordan-Small Middle School and Windham High School, as well.