CATO - After debating numbers and changing figures for more than an hour Thursday evening, the Cato-Meridian school board adopted a $15,635,602 budget for 2005-06.

For the past year, the district has been operating under a contingency budget of $13,401,321 that was put into place after the district's proposed budget was voted down twice last year.

When the meeting first began, the budget that was on the table would have required an 8.58 percent tax levy, but at the request of board members Donald Thompson and Charles Ware, the board reallocated funds bringing the levy down to 7.87 percent.

"We need to show the public we are reducing their taxes and that we have their best interest at heart,#" Thompson said.

Due to the sudden change in the budget, Assistant Superintendent for Business Crosby Lamont was unable to project how much taxes will go up for homeowners based on assessed values.

Robert Vogel, who resigned as board president in February, encouraged the board to double the tax levy and bring back all of the teachers and programs the school previously lost. A number of teachers and community members spoke to the board along the same lines, stating that the students' needs should come first.

"I think the extra money we are coming up with to reduce the levy should go back into programming,#" board member Deborah Kolb said. "Keeping the levy at 8.5 percent is what is in the best interest of the taxpayers because it is their children we need to educate."

The budget was adopted 5-2. Kolb and Patricia Russo voted against the proposal.

The $2,234,281 increase in the overall budget will allow six teaching positions to be filled, all sports and extra-curricular activities to be reinstated, and an increase in non-instructional support staff.

The adopted budget will be presented for a public vote on May 17. On the ballot will also be a $203,977 bus proposal. The funds would allow the district to purchase one 65-passenger bus, one 60-passenger bus, and a wheelchair accessible bus that would seat 24.

"I think this is a fair and responsible budget,#" school board president Margaret Meccariello said. "It is not everything we wanted but it is a good start."

Staff writer Ashley Lipsky can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 235 or ashley.lipsky@lee.net