Last January, Superintendent Peter Nero was despondent as he presented his 2011-2012 budget, which included deep financial cuts and lost student programs.

Last Tuesday, the superintendent offered a markedly different budget document, and was practically giddy as he shared his outlook for the district going forward.

“I am thoroughly optimistic,” he said. “We are now seeing the daylight at the end of the tunnel; we are turning the corner. We can now look ahead and not dream but be pragmatic and systematic that, in the not so distant future, we can begin bringing back programs that were once extinct.”

While the Cranston West prayer banner case hijacked the meeting, School Committee officials applauded Nero for the difficult choices he had to make to realize a balanced budget. To them, the presentation was a significant improvement from budgets of the past.

“I want to congratulate my colleagues on the School Committee. We’ve had to make a lot of difficult decisions over the past few years. Because of those difficult decisions, [Nero] was able to present this budget,” said member Michael Traficante.

The proposed operating budget for 2012-2013 is $133,566,028, which is an increase of approximately $4.5 million from last year, or 3.5 percent. From the city, that would mean an additional $1.6 million for the district, or 1.76 percent. The maximum increase that the district is able to request is 4.25 percent.

“That’s the lowest increase we’ve ever requested,” Nero said. “I have never been this optimistic; I’m usually very depressed when I have to present my budget.”

The big ticket increases on the expenditure side for the coming year come with, not surprisingly, salaries and pensions. Salaries are slated to increase by $1.4 million next year, though the damage could have been worse. The contract approved with the Cranston Teachers Alliance did not include raises or step increases, which would have resulted in another $1.7 million in costs. Teachers increased their health care cost shares to 20 percent.

School Committee member Frank Lombardi thanked district teachers, and CTA President Lizbeth Larkin in particular, for coming to the table before their contract expired in order to get the district through a difficult time.

“Liz, we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done, particularly in a light of a year when teachers and educators in Cranston are under attack by an organization like Achievement First,” he said, referencing the ongoing proposal for a mayoral academy that would pull students from Cranston.

Pension contributions will increase by roughly $1.1 million next year for both certified and non-certified employees.

“These are what I call the uncontrollables,” Nero said. “Had we not had pension reform, instead of this going up approximately $1.1 million, it would have gone up an additional $5.8 million. That’s what you would have been staring at when you were deliberating this budget.”

Factoring in an ELL coordinator will cost the district $95,696, which may sound like a lot, but the superintendent said it could be put off no longer, as the district’s demographics change significantly, the ELL population grows and the state Department of Education implemented new Basic Education Program requirements in July of 2010 that mandates such a coordinator.

“The BEP requires a coordinator and that’s the salary that I put in the budget. We cannot do without that for another year,” he said.

Further increases included utilities, workers compensation insurance, unemployment insurance and health and dental. The district started their health care budget with a $2 million deficit, after four teachers died while still working, several after suffering from significant illnesses. Altogether, the health care increase is $470,964.

Nero is hoping that a similar deficit will not occur this year. To date, the district is running a surplus of nearly $1.4 million for the first six months.

“For the first time in a long time, everything is kind of moving favorably,” he said.

Additionally, for the first time in several years, Nero included projects that have been sitting on his wish list for some time. He included band uniforms at $55,000, an intercom system at Western Hills at $32,500, gym inspections and repairs at $10,700 and textbooks at $78,000 – all of which he defended to the committee.

The band uniforms at Cranston West are 24 years old, and the uniforms at East were purchased second hand seven years ago through eBay. At Western Hills, Nero says the 42-year-old intercom system does not work.

“We cannot go on like this without these things,” he said.

David Sears, a 10th grader at Cranston West, was particularly glad to see funding for textbooks. He says he gleans little from the district’s mathematics textbook, and said that not having enough foreign language books to go around, meaning students cannot take books home, is “despicable.”

“It’s about education,” he said.

Cranston resident Al Benetti was also pleased to see some things added back to a previously bare bones budget.

“I really want to commend you tonight on that budget presentation,” he said.

As a father of two daughters, one of whom is currently in high school in Cranston, Benetti encouraged the School Committee to get feedback from students on the budget and also lamented that so few people in the audience at Western Hills were present to talk about the budget - the document that most affects students in Cranston.

“We could hardly get full auditoriums when there were books being cut, when there were programs being cut,” he said. “When you go through this budget, I think it would be good to have students come in from different classes and get input from them.”

Still, the focus of his presentation was on the costs avoided through difficult decisions and what he believes is smart budgeting. Using the court-ordered audit as a guide, Nero pointed out how the district saved more than $1.2 million on reconfiguring the elementary schools and $915,918 through reductions in full time equivalent employees. When it came to budgeting savings, the district was overly conservative in both health care savings and other budget recommendations, such as eliminating EPIC and Saturday detention; they saved $1.8 million more through cost-sharing and $1.7 million more through the other recommendations. Altogether, the district avoided close to $8 million.

Several revenue increases helped get the budget on track as well. State aid for 2012-2013 increased by $4.7 million, offset slightly by the loss of the Federal Jobs Bill to the tune of $1.5 million. Revenue is estimated to increase overall this year by $2.9 million.

Whether or not the city will provide the district with the additional $1.6 million needed to keep the budget balanced remains unclear. Nero is hopeful that his presentation will come to fruition, and that in the near future, programs like EPIC and elementary music could be reinstated. Even without those additions, though, he says he is proud of the budget the district must present to the City Council by March 1.

“Despite the difficult times that we’ve had in the past, our schools are still very successful,” he said.