The increases were just higher than we thought. As we did last year when we asked for budget increases, we returned $220,000 to the Town fund. Some of the money from the special appropriation we did not spend for the year, so we thought it was appropriate to return funds that were not needed.

For instance, we used part of $50,000 this year to do some emergency maintenance work at Academy school. This has always been set aside for unforeseen repairs.

But people said that in our budget, you couldn't compare the amounts, so we put it back above the line.

The concept to everything above the line is comparing how we operate the school system one year to the next. Below the line is debt service, but the comparative costs are not included because the debt service fluctuates too much.

We have reduced thermostats and instructed the teachers to close the blinds at the end of the day in order to preserve as much heat as possible. We also have worked to reduce heat loss by working with Bill McMinn [manager of facilities] to install weather stripping around the doors and the buildings.

We based these charges on expected trends for the rate increase effective this month. We are all seeing increases in our electricity bills; it was difficult to predict this increase in energy costs.