AUBURN — Voters will decide on a $38.2 million school budget Tuesday.

Polls at regular ward locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 10.

The proposed school budget is 3 percent higher than this fiscal year. Auburn taxpayers will be asked to pay $14.3 million, which means a property tax increase of $58 for a home valued at $150,000.

School Committee Chairman Larry Pelletier said he is holding his breath on whether the budget passes.

“It’s a flip of the coin. I don’t know,” he said.

Last year, it took three referendums before voters approved the budget on Aug. 20.

This time, the City Council and School Committee have worked together. Last year, there was a rift between the two bodies over, in part, the size of the proposed budget.

“We’ve come leaps and bounds,” Pelletier said. “The council had made a lot of concessions so the school budget would pass. I’m very appreciative.”

School Committee member Ron Potvin, who ran for the position last November to help deliver a budget taxpayers could better afford, predicted voters Tuesday will reluctantly support the budget.

All through the budget workshops Potvin pushed for cuts. The School Department “got hammered with a couple of unfunded mandates,” such as higher MaineCare costs for special ed students. But teachers gave up raises for a year, which helped save money. “That’s a big item,” Potvin said.

Given existing constraints, the budget “is about the best we can do,” Potvin said. “I’m more worried about next year’s budget,” which will be the year the state tells communities they have to spend enough local dollars on education to meet the Essential Programs and Services formula or else be subject to losing state money. Auburn spends $1.6 million less than what’s expected, according to the formula.

The budget has been characterized by Superintendent Katy Grondin as one that maintains existing programs, gives raises to teachers who last year went without and covers mandated charter school costs, higher special education and health insurance costs.

The budget cuts two teacher positions, a bus purchase and reduces Land Lab teacher Jim Chandler’s position to half-time instead of eliminating his job, as earlier proposed.

This fall, third-graders will receive iPads. Also in the budget is $93,944 for new positions, an instructional coach to help continue customized learning, a contracted English Language Learner cultural broker, an ELL ed tech and expanded sports at the Auburn Middle School.

Typically, voter turnout on school budgets is in the single digits, although last year 13 percent of Auburn voters came to the polls. Low voter turnout “is not what I want to see,” Pelletier said. “I’m always disappointed when that happens.”

Win or lose, Pelletier said he hopes more voters will show up to decide the budget. Primary candidates on the ballot “should draw people out,” he said.

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