BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford School Department has unveiled the first draft of its fiscal year 2017 budget, which would lower the property tax rate while adding teachers to the district.

“We’re delivering a budget to the taxpayers that’s a reduction in taxes with no cuts,” Jeremy Ray, superintendent of Biddeford schools, said Monday. “It’s actually adding positions.”

The proposed $34.7 million budget is just over 2 percent higher than the current budget. But because the department has received nearly $600,000 more than it had planned in state funding this fiscal year, the additional revenue being carried over to next fiscal year allows for a lessened burden on Biddeford taxpayers.

As it stands now, the proposed budget would lower property taxes by about 0.41 percent. Taxes could be lowered even more, Ray said, if the upcoming state budget again allocates more money than anticipated to Biddeford.

The amount the school district has received from the state has gone up because property valuation has gone down in Biddeford during the last few years, Ray said, citing events such as the closing of Maine Energy Recovery Co.’s trash burner on Lincoln Street.

The proposed budget includes the addition of three teachers and an education technician for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.

Two of the teachers are slated to work at the new Biddeford Middle School STEM Academy, which will be modeled after similar programs at schools such as Portland’s King Middle School and Casco Bay High School.

“We’re developing an in-depth program and pathway for students to meet some of the demands of the workforce,” Ray said of the STEM Academy.

Few details have been released about the program, but at a Feb. 23 School Committee meeting, Ray called it “a huge step for (Biddeford),” and said parents have been inquiring about how to get their children involved.

The STEM Academy will be discussed in more detail at tonight’s School Committee meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Little Theater at Biddeford High School.

While the proposed budget includes a nearly $600,000 increase in salaries and about $300,000 for the new positions, it also includes a $111,000 decrease over last year in health insurance premium costs, which Ray said was the result of “tremendous” concessions from the teachers’ union during recent contract negotiations.

The proposed budget is still a long way away from being finalized by the School Department, after which it will be subject to review by the City Council.

“It’s important for people to understand this is a first draft,” Ray said. “But I think it sets us up to be in a very good place for the next school year.”

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or [email protected].