MILLINOCKET — In an effort better to prepare future budgets, the School Board will hold workshop sessions on a number of issues.

Superintendent Georgia Carroll said the intent of informational workshops was to “try to prep ourselves and make some informed choices” before next year’s budget process begins.

She said the sessions would give people an opportunity to discuss the issues. “We want to make our operation more efficient and more cost-effective,” she said.

The superintendent said many of the issues to be discussed were not new, but were worth at least exploring or deserving of a second look. She said that the issues’ being discussed or explored did not necessarily mean current policies would change.

Driver education fees and the high school lunch schedule will be discussed at the first workshop on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

Driver education students at Stearns High School now are charged no fee for the course. Some other schools do charge fees, ranging from $75 to $100, and some schools charge according to the total cost of the program.

Stearns High School students now have about one hour for lunch. In the elementary and middle schools, students have more than 20 minutes for lunch and either may eat the school lunch offered, or may go home if they live close by. Officials will explore a similar schedule for the high school.

The length of the school year and the school day will be discussed in a future meeting. The length of the school year for Millinocket students is 175 days, 180 days for teachers. Some schools have longer school days and longer school years.

Another topic to be discussed will be class sizes. The policy of the School Board has been to keep low pupil-teacher ratios especially in lower grade levels. The state recommends a ratio of no more than 25-to-1 for kindergarten; ratios of no more than 25-to-1 in grades one through eight; and in secondary grade levels the ratio should not exceed 30-to-1. Carroll said the pupil-teacher ratios in Millinocket were well below the state-recommended levels.

Also, officials will “discuss” moving the fifth grade to the Middle School.

The board discussed Tuesday holding a meeting with area school officials in Union 113 (East Millinocket, Medway and Woodville) to discuss an earlier proposal to consolidate area schools, which was turned down by voters. She said there was a great potential for area schools to offer programs that individually could not be offered because there were not enough students.

As an example, each school might have only a few students interested in a foreign language. If they bandned together and shared costs, the program could be provided to students in both schools.

Carroll said school officials planned to attend a tri-town meeting Tuesday, Sept. 17, in East Millinocket. Municipal officials of Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway will participate.