EASTON – The budget process is under way for the Easton School Committee, which held its first meeting of the year Monday night.

The committee and school department employees will have until the beginning of April to take an initial look at the budget numbers, Frank Keenan, Easton superintendent, said Tuesday.

The superintendent said he hopes that by the end of April or beginning of May the board will be able to vote on a final version of the budget for residents to review.

The department will hold its annual budget meeting in early June, when town members will vote on whether to approve the document.

Keenan said the one major impact to the budget for the 2004-2005 school year would be a $60,000 expense to purchase a school bus.

The state Department of Education approved the Easton department’s appeal for a new school bus. Under one of the department’s programs, schools pay upfront for a school bus and are reimbursed the next year by the state agency, Keenan said.

The new bus, which will be purchased for the coming school year, will replace a 1991 bus with 170,000 miles and become part of the fleet of three buses the department uses daily to transport students.

Keenan said the new bus would be the department’s third bus purchase in the last four years and that the department should not need any new ones for five to seven years.