PARIS — After two proposed school budgets went down during referendum votes June 11 and Aug. 6, Maine School Administrative District 17’s board of directors and administration have put the third cycle on pause to survey voters on spending priorities for the upcoming school year.

Monday night SAD 17’s school board budget committee approved a special business meeting for Sept. 9 to hear and vote on the next proposed spending plan. A public meeting for the community to vote on the budget warrants will be Sept. 19, with a districtwide ballot referendum on Oct. 8.

The procedural dates and steps follow Maine state statutes on public education.

Until then, directors have set a stopgap local share based on the most recently approved budget validation, which was done during a July 23 public meeting.

That validated budget of $50.5 million will allow the eight sending towns of SAD 17 to finalize their property tax rates and mail out tax bills by the end of September. Local taxpayer shares for communities will be adjusted once a budget is finalized.

About 10% of voters in the eight sending towns of Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris, Waterford and West Paris participated in the most recent referendum. Of the 1,299 votes cast, passage fell 107 votes short.

“We determined (during the director’s budget meeting last week) that we need to get more information from the community before we do more cuts,” Manchester said. “We had low voter turnout and we are concerned about making further changes when so few people voted. We have no clear mandate. Particularly when the budget was approved during two budget meetings, by a significant majority.”

To that end, SAD 17 is assessing its communications methods and strategies with the community. Administrators have developed a survey to gather information from residents with goals to increase voter participation and determine where residents see budget cuts as most feasible.

Electronic surveys were emailed to parents with a robocall prompt, and downloadable from SAD 17’s website and social media pages.

Hard copies were distributed to town offices, post offices and at other local businesses for voters to pick up. Respondents will need to return printed surveys to the Central Office in South Paris.

“We want to understand where people get their information so we can include those outlets in our communications,” she said. “And (ascertain) what changes to the budget will improve its likelihood of being approved.”

Survey responses are coming in now and data will be presented to the budget committee Monday.

Manchester added that while many budget allocations are federally mandated and cannot be decreased or eliminated, it is important to include all concerns in a productive dialogue.

The budget committee will meet every Monday until the school board votes on a third draft.