The up-Island school district got its first look at a draft budget for the coming fiscal year this week, penciled in at $10.7 million, an increase of 8.49 per cent over last year.

If the budget is approved as written, taxpayers in West Tisbury, Aquinnah and Chilmark will pay $841,000 more than last year for school costs. Assessments would increase the most in West Tisbury, by 13.78 per cent. Aquinnah would see an increase of 2.67 per cent and Chilmark would see an increase of 1.19 per cent.

The draft budget was discussed at a Tuesday night meeting of the up-Island school committee.

“The increase is higher than the school committee would have liked but it’s what we’re working with,” Vineyard schools superintendent James H. Weiss told the Gazette by telephone after the meeting.

Staffing costs are driving the bulk of the increase, Mr. Weiss said, among them a proposed new school resource officer costing around $80,000, the added position of a district secretary costing $35,532 and a language arts enrichment program budgeted at $29,035. Post-employment benefits, math books for the Chilmark school and capital expenditures for facilities in West Tisbury are also part of the increases.

On Tuesday, the committee debated at length the proposed school resource officer.

“If you look at the law passed, chapter 284, it indicates that every city, town, regional school district must have one school resource officer assigned to its schools unless there is no funding,” Mr. Weiss said. He said the officer would not have to be full time but would need to be someone who is properly trained, which will cost the school around $20,000.

West Tisbury school principal Donna Lowell-Bettencourt told the committee she supports the idea of bringing the daily presence of a police officer into the up-Island schools.

She suggested the position could be split between an officer in West Tisbury and an officer in Chilmark and said she has already discussed details with the West Tisbury police chief.

“I think more than one person would be good, I think a male and a female would be good,” Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt said. She said she will continue to meet with police chief Dan Rossi on planning for the possibility of a school resource officer.

“This is a tremendous thing for a town to do, to have somebody on the police force know every kid in town. I don’t see why a town would vote that down,” committee member Dan Cabot said.

But not everyone agreed, and in the end committee members said they wanted more information on school resource officers before voting on the proposed budget or discussing the issue further.

The committee is scheduled vote on certifying the budget on Nov. 17.

Tuesday was also the last meeting for Mr. Cabot, who has served on school committees in both the up-Island district and at the regional high school for eight years. Committee members brought brownies and pie and chairman Michael Marcus presented Mr. Cabot with a plaque commending him for his service to education. “For your service to the community, to educators, the high school, to all of us. For being a good mentor to me in this process. You will be deeply missed,” Mr. Marcus said.

“I appreciate the acknowledgment,” Mr. Cabot said, holding up his new plaque. “ And I’ll find a place in my house for this.”