HOLDEN – Residents of the SAD 63 member towns of Holden, Eddington and Clifton will have two opportunities to preview the district’s proposed $7.7 million operating budget for 2002-03 during public hearings this week and next week.

The proposed $7,723,811 budget reflects an increase of $477,628, or 6.59 percent, from the current budget, Superintendent Ray Hart said Tuesday.

The budget will be presented during a pair of public hearings this month, the first of which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Eddington School, Hart said. The second session is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at the Holden School.

Residents of SAD 63’s member towns will vote on the budget during the annual district budget meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at the Holbrook School.

If the budget is approved as presented, member towns’ tax assessments will be as follows: Clifton, $540,843; Eddington, $1,127,687; and Holden, $1,926,557, Hart said.

More than half of that increase, however, is directly attributed to a $255,017 tax anticipation note the district needed to take out last November to cover the unexpectedly high cost of out-of-district placements, Hart said.

The actual cost for the placements turned out to be greater than projected when this year’s education budget was developed. The note, he said, was taken out last November and by state law must be repaid within 13 months. Once the note is factored out, the increase for the operation budget amounts to $222,611, or 3 percent, from this year.

According to Hart, the proposed budget would maintain the status quo, with the possible exception of the appointment of a vice principal for Holbrook School, which houses the district’s middle school program.

The principal of that school, Ralph Russell, likely will retire in the next few years, Hart said. The proposed vice principal would pitch in with the principal’s workload and serve during the anticipated transition period.

All but $6,000 of the position’s cost would be funded with money that otherwise would have covered a teaching vacancy. If the district’s board of directors decides to go that route, the teaching post will not be filled, said Hart.