CORRECTION

This article was amended Thursday morning to correct the starting time of Saturday’s deliberative session and voting on March 14. An earlier version also incorrectly identified one of the parties involved in the collective bargaining agreement that will be discussed and reported a warrant article about special education that has since been dropped.

—

The deliberative session of the Lebanon School District’s annual meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Lebanon Middle School to amend warrant articles. Ballot voting on all warrant articles is scheduled for 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 14 at city polling locations.

Lebanon — City voters will be asked to endorse a $42.1 million Lebanon School District budget proposal for the 2017-18 school year during the district’s deliberative session on Saturday.

The proposed budget is a $1.5 million increase over the current year’s and is expected to add 73 cents to school portion of the municipal property tax rate.

For a property assessed at $250,000, that translates into a tax increase of $182.50 for next year.

School officials say the increase is largely the result of fixed costs. About $1 million in new expenses is the result of rising health care and retirement costs, along with increases to union-negotiated salaries.

The cost of special education services will also increase by more than $400,000, according to district budget numbers.

Voters will have the opportunity to debate whether to add two positions to the Hanover Street School next year. During budget deliberations last month, the School Board didn’t include $152,000 needed to fund a paraprofessional and teacher at the school.

Parents objected to the move during a budget hearing on Jan. 11, according to meeting minutes. Several parents told board members they hoped to create a petition warrant article calling for the additional funding, but missed the filing deadline.

The budget that comes out of Saturday’s sessions will be voted on in March.

Voters in March also will be asked to approve a new, three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Lebanon Support Staff. If approved, the contract calls for $39,116 in additional costs next year, followed by $138,390 in 2018-19 and $152,744 in 2019-20.

A warrant article will also ask voters to approve $300,000 to go into the construction, renovations and buildings reserve fund. The article will not be funded through taxes, but rather transfers from unreserved funds.

People can find a copy of the proposed warrant and budget information on the district’s website at sau88.net.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.