Lisbon school officials hope the angry electorate that took out its frustration over the municipal budget by rejecting the school budget by a huge margin will be more willing this time to consider the proposed school spending plan on its own merit.

A second vote on the 2025-26 school budget will take place Tuesday at Lisbon High School.

On June 10, with residents seething over a potential 20% tax hike due to an accounting error with the municipal budget, voters only had one place to show their unhappiness with the entire process and that was to take out an innocent bystander — the $21.2 million school budget.

The one-sided vote was 724 residents casting a no vote and just 312 voting yes.

“I talked to a lot of folks, and they said, ‘Len, I voted against it because that was the only way I could get my anger out,'” school board member Leonard Lednum said at the last school board meeting. “It’s not great to hear that but it’s important to listen to everybody. And I get it. I understand.”

But instead of making cuts to the original budget proposal, which Superintendent Richard Green was prepared to offer, the school committee and the town council voted to send the exact same budget back to the voters.

Town Councilor Norman Albert was a huge proponent in urging the school board to send the same budget back to the voters.

“None of the people who talk at council meetings were at our budget meeting,” Green said. “This room was just filled with parents, and they all told us to send it back with the same numbers. We had a councilor there saying, ‘every penny you cut, I’m going to add it back in.'”

Based on what they heard at that meeting following the no vote, the school board agreed to send the same $21.2 million budget back to voters.

Green noted that the proposed budget is $598,966 higher than last year’s total for an increase of 2.1%. It appears higher than that, he said, because the accounting error did not increase taxes for the school budget last year, meaning that the tax increase this year covers two years.

Should Tuesday’s vote fail, Green said his options are limited as to where he can cut. Contractual obligations require a 90-day notice, which would extend employment into the school year.  Some professional services that could get trimmed include adult education, some co-curricular positions that are currently vacant, cleaning and mowing services and perhaps one of the two school resource officers, which would prove unpopular. The Jobs for Maine Graduates program could also be eliminated. Green said he would establish a hard freeze on spending.

Green said, “$600,000 doesn’t come from pencils and paper. It comes from programs and services.”

According to statute, the school department will have to operate under last year’s numbers if the budget fails.