The proposed school district budget is nearly $900,000 more than what town officials have said is available for school spending next year, meaning the district will once again need to make cuts.

Town officials have proposed an almost $36 million school district budget for next year, a nearly $1.3 million increase from the previous year’s budget. However, school officials have said the district will need around $2.1 million more funding than last year to operate.

Around 90% of the school districts' requested budget increase comes in the form of raises for staff while the rest are operating expenses such as supplies, technology and out-of-district student tuition.

Last year the school district was roughly $2.4 million short on required funding and in the last two years has cut eight teachers and three assistant principals as well as 13 other staff members to meet the budget.

“There’s really not a lot of places left to cut. But we will make the necessary budget adjustments to get to the number that the town can support,” said Superintendent Matt D’Andrea.

The largest percentage of the district's spending for the elementary, middle and high school is dedicated to staff salaries with about 90% of each school's funding going toward paying staff.

School Committee Vice Chair Geoffrey Swett identified an improving student to teacher ratio, 11 students to one teacher at Wareham Highschool this year, down from 13 to one in 2017, as a source of financial strain.

“[Cutting] 30 teachers would solve the budget problem,” Swett said. “The problem is what’s the educational impact of 30 teachers disappearing, even though that’s the exact number we had in 2017. We have a fundamental problem which is we don’t have enough money for the number of staff we feel we need.”

The high school would see the largest budget increase, according to the proposed plan, with nearly $1 million more spent next year, primarily on staff salaries.

Each year the district uses revenue from grants like Title I to reduce the money required from the town. This year’s additional revenue sources total almost $3 million but do not bring the school district’s proposal inline with what town officials have preliminarily offered.

Additionally, the school district lost roughly $550,000 in revenue for next year in grants or reimbursement opportunities that expire this year.

The school committee also raised concerns that increasing incomes and property values in Wareham will reduce the amount of funding received from Chapter 70, a state program that provides aid to elementary and secondary schools.

There will be a public meeting held on Dec. 5 to review the school district’s budget and a final version will be voted on and appropriated at the spring Town Meeting.