BELFAST – Faced with the prospect of a major increase in next year’s school budget, school board member Alan Wood has outlined a series of cuts that he believes will bring spending under control.

Wood submitted his proposal to his fellow SAD 34 board members and the administration on Tuesday. He said the board needed to take a hard look at all areas if it wanted to avoid the deficit problems that occurred with this year’s $20 million budget.

The district has projected a $824,000 deficit by the end of this school year and has asked voters for permission to borrow the money in order to pay its bills. The district’s six member communities will act on the borrowing referendum on Tuesday, March 14. If approved, the money to repay the loan would be added to the next two budgets.

“An awful lot of people are very upset with us, and we’ve got to do whatever we can to reduce taxes and show them we are trying,” Wood said Tuesday.

Wood said the administration’s 2006-07 preliminary budget of about $24 million was 20 percent more than this year’s spending package. He said the school board would need to cut that proposal dramatically if it wants to win back the support of the voters.

“We’re going to have to whittle it down,” said Wood. “I think we can cut harmlessly at first, and then we’ll have to do more deeper cuts.”

Wood proposed cutting a number of positions, selling unused school buildings and property, cutting back on transportation costs, revamping the district’s hiring procedure and renegotiating the amount the district pays for employee health insurance.

“The suggestions are not meant to gut any program but to stimulate discussion,” Wood said. “I also feel that most of my suggestions are logical and, if voted on, will not affect the educational quality. They are from the top down.”

Wood suggested eliminating of the principal’s position at the 80-pupil Nickerson School in Swanville. He said the school was too small for a full-time principal. As an example, SAD 56 in Searsport has a half-time principal at Frankfort Elementary School who also teaches there. He suggested eliminating two guidance positions, four teaching positions and those of five educational technicians.

Wood said the position of athletic director at Belfast Area High School should be taken by the assistant principal, as it used to be in the past. He suggested athletics could be cut by reducing the number of games and curtailing travel to schools more than 40 miles away. He said stipends for coaches should be cut and that non-teachers be considered for coaching positions. He suggested that “many or all” stipend positions be eliminated.

He said the board should compare the cost of privatizing transportation with managing it in-house. Many other schools use private firms to transport students. He said speech and occupational therapists should not be allowed to go beyond their contracts as was permitted this year.

The district needs to “maximize out tax return” on the vacant Robertson School “instead of floating money down the drain,” he said. He also suggested unused acreage at the East Belfast School and Troy Howard Middle School be put on the market.

Wood proposed changing the policy of paying the health insurance of employees and their families. He said health insurance cost the district $12,640 for each of its employees this year and that the figure would increase to $13,260 per employee next year.

“When we are talking close to 400 employees districtwide, the total dollar amount adds up,” he noted.

Wood suggested the board negotiate “single subscriber” insurance for the employees and that employees be asked to pay 50 percent of the cost of having their families on the school health plan instead of the district covering the entire cost as is now the case.

“Short term, this is going to be bad,” Wood said of his proposal. “Long term, this may be good.”