Just about everywhere you turn, people and institutions are striving to pay Peter without driving Paul into bankruptcy. Translation - we're all struggling to pay our bills.

The Edgecomb Eddy School Committee is no exception. At their monthly meeting on February 12, it fell on the shoulders of School Superintendent Eileen King to give the board an overview of the good, bad and the ugly of the school's present cash flow analysis that includes the ever-greater likelihood that the school will need more money to pay bills.

"We have usually used about 47 percent of our budget at this time of year, but right now we are at 53 percent," King said. "We are monitoring this very closely."

One of the reasons for the rise in cost was the unexpected increase in the number of tuition students and special needs students, some of whom live in the recently built apartments on Davis Island.

The school accepts students from kindergarten through grade six. Upon graduation, they are able to choose which middle and high school they will attend, and tuition is paid out of the school's budget up to a certain amount for each child.

"Grade ten now has about 24 students in it," School Committee Chairman Steve Ward said. The class had only 12 students four years ago.

"That's an additional cost of about $100,000 in tuition payments. We have zero control over what's spent on tuition," he continued. "We had a huge increase last year in that account. We had 12 students move into town at a cost of between $8,000 and $9,000 in tuition for each one."

Ward explained that the situation was made even worse by the fact that last year's graduating class was very small and the outgoing seventh grade class was large. Similarly, the rise in the number of special needs students has forced the school to dig deep into their resources to provide mandated services.

It may not have been the best of times, but Dean of Students Lisa Clarke was unable to avoid presenting the board with the pressing need to add an additional educational technician to the staff for the balance of the school year. "This kindergarten class is the largest that the school has seen," she said. "Our fourth grade class now has 20 students."

In addition to the numbers, Clarke explained that administration has had to re-assign some of their staff to work one-on-one with certain students to comply with their special needs' individual educational plans.

"Right now, not getting additional support for our kindergarten and primary classes is not an option," King added. "We may be able to get some federal funds to help out, but that would be only be about $5,000 to $6,000."

"I have already asked Lisa to freeze the budget, but the savings there are small," King said. "We'll need $7,000 to $8,000 to add someone. However, the impact on the quality of instruction for the kids is crucial."

"I think it is money well spent," School Committee member Dirk Poole said. "We'll either spend it now or spend more later."

"Is that a motion?" Ward asked. With Poole's approval, it was seconded by School Committee member Joe McSwain and approved unanimously.

King also gave the board an executive summary of the proposed school budget for 2008-2009. The budget shows a 6.08 percent increase over the 2007-2008 budget, which means spending an additional $152,181. The bulk of that increase is reflected in the extra money needed to meet special education costs, which is $92,449.

Other areas that show an increase are as follows:

• Instruction - $31,930

• Computer Technology - $6,850

• Plant Operation and Maintenance - $12,500

• Regular Education Tuition -

$14,185

Selectman Stuart Smith was present at the meeting and shared that the town is also over budget in their roads account due to the bad weather and in the general assistance account that is used to help residents. Should the school need help from the town to pay this year's bills, a request for funds will have to be added to the warrant for this year's annual town meeting.

"We will have a better sense of what we will need at the next school committee meeting on March 4," King added.

Two parents, Marilee Harris and Gabrielle Van Spanje, joined the meeting to ask the committee to consider adding a foreign language to the school curriculum.

Ward said that all of the board members are parents and are "on the same page" when it comes to making language instruction available to all grades.

"I grew up overseas and was a Spanish teacher," King said. "I have always wanted to offer this to our students. We had it in our budget last year, but it was one of the programs cut. We have some money already set aside to support it next year, but we have no way of knowing if it will survive."

"Although we all support the initiative, there are some budget items that we cannot touch because of federal mandates," Ward said. "We have very little wiggle room when it comes to special needs, teacher contracts and heating costs.

"Is there any way that the Parent Teacher Club could help the school brainstorm and be creative in finding a way to add languages?" Morris asked.

McSwain suggested that corporate sponsors or volunteers could be explored. "If we could get a program off the ground, we may then have a ground swell of support to keep it going," he said.