Nearly 70 Cape Elizabeth students are expected to protest the proposed school budget at a public hearing tonight.

The hearing is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the town hall. A town-wide referendum will take place June 10.

The town council is looking at approving a $19.7 million budget, a 4.6 percent increase from the current budget. The proposed increase is nearly $263,000 less than what the school board had proposed to the council.

Most of the proposed adjustments are reductions in staff. The biggest cut would be $82,610 for the full-time curriculum coordinator. The coordinator position was created in 2001-02.

If the cut is made, the curriculum director's work would be assumed by the superintendent, administrators, and the technology department, and stipend work from staff members who have been active in the district's curriculum, instruction and assessment committee.

The second-largest proposed reduction is a $43,307 psychologist's position.

The total budget proposal for the town is $30.8 million, a 4.5 percent increase over this year's, with a tax-rate proposal of $17.34 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, up 5.5 percent.