DERRY — New school superintendent Laura Nelson is looking to get a jump on the 2013-14 school year budget.

Nelson said she has met with school business director Jane Simard to discuss a preliminary budget and would like to meet soon with members of the School Board.

“I’m asking the board to sit down with us and provide some direction for what (the board) would like to see as an overarching philosophy for the budget this year,” she said.

The meeting would provide the board an opportunity to give any directives of what it would like to see in the budget process, according to Nelson.

“We can have a mutual conversation about where we want to go before we start the budget that way we are on the same page,” she said.

The meeting would also give Nelson the opportunity to discuss some new federal laws that will impact the budget process, including new health care insurance regulations.

In the spring, voters approved a School Board-backed budget of $79,062,937 for the current year, which was an increase of 1.1 percent over the previous district budget.

The budget included compensation from a new three-year teacher contract.

The agreement sees teachers getting a one percent raise in the first year, a 1.5 percent raise in the second year, and a two percent raise in the third.

The increase in salaries, including step raises and benefits, at the current staffing levels are $761,986.57 for the current school year.

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