TREMONT — School officials announced Monday they have found additional savings in the $2.35 million Tremont Consolidated School budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

School officials reported the budget decrease in a joint meeting with selectmen and the town’s warrant committee.

The additional savings primarily came in the budget line for fuel oil. Officials had budgeted $4 per gallon due to uncertainty in the market. They recently learned they could lock in a much better price with a Hancock oil dealer.

As of Monday, No Frills Oil Company was offering Mount Desert Island’s school system a price of $1.90 per gallon. That would result in a savings of about $20,000, said Union 98 superintendent Rob Liebow.

School committees from all island schools are to meet next week to vote on whether to accept the No Frills Oil proposal. The actual price per gallon could change somewhat by that time.

In addition, a teacher at the school is planning to retire this year. That employee is at the top of the pay scale and school officials expect to hire a replacement at a lower rate.

Mr. Liebow also reported that health insurance costs would most likely be lower than anticipated. Budgets for Tremont and other schools were based on a 10-percent increase for insurance. Mr. Liebow said he now expects the increase to be closer to 8 or 9 percent.

As proposed originally, the $2.35 million budget reflected less than a 2-percent increase over the budget for this fiscal year. With that budget, school officials estimated a drop in property taxes of $5.27 for each $100,000 of property valuation. With the additional cuts, the savings to the taxpayer will be even greater.

“We worked hard to get a lean budget that still gave us everything we need,” school principal Dianne Waters said.

The major factor in keeping the budget relatively flat was the amount of carryover from this year’s budget. The $188,516 carryover is $95,300 greater than last year. Mr. Liebow said the leftover money is the result of a decision to freeze unnecessary purchases due to uncertainties in state subsidy and the rising costs of goods and services and not because of poor planning.

Another factor is a decrease in debt service for the upcoming year. A loan for a school renovation project will be paid off this year, resulting in a savings of $12,500.

Salaries for teachers are increasing 2.5 percent due to contractual obligations with the teachers’ union, Mr. Liebow said.

Ms. Waters said reductions have been made in the budgets for the principal’s office and technology.

A half-time bookkeeping position has been eliminated in the principal’s office, resulting in a savings of more than $17,000. A secretary in the office has taken on the bookkeeping job along with her other duties, Ms. Waters said.

The $88,000 budget for technology is $6,400 lower than for this year. The technology coordinator has left and is being replaced by two half-time employees, Ms. Waters said.

Selectmen and warrant committee members had little comment on the budget. Several selectmen and warrant committee member Frank Gray said they feel that snowplowing costs should be added into the budget. The town now includes plowing at the school in the municipal budget. The proponents acknowledged that the cost, either way, is borne by taxpayers, but argued the change would better reflect the true cost of educating students.

Mr. Liebow said snowplowing at all K-8 schools on the island is in some part done by the respective towns and not included in the school budgets.

The issue was dropped after selectman Kathi Thurston pointed out that the town also plows the fire stations, the Bass Harbor Memorial Library and the town wharf. If plowing costs are included in the school budget then they should be included in the budgets for those departments, she said.

“I don’t think we need to go there,” she concluded.