LISBON – Residents crowded the auditorium at Lisbon Community School with a surprising message for the Town Council: Raise property taxes if you have to.

The hearing wasn’t an official one, but rather a Town Council meeting that had been turned into an open forum for taxpayers and students to respond to a proposed $760,000 in budget cuts to the Lisbon School Department budget.

Cuts included a K-12 music teacher, a high school art teacher, the elementary school foreign language program, fourth and sixth-grade teachers, a kindergarten ed tech position, a school police officer, the hockey program and three assistant coaches.

Lynne Fuller, who has children in the Lisbon school system, said she was against the cuts but sympathized with the Town Council and School Committee. “I think they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got,” Fuller said. The state’s cuts to the education budget was the real problem, Fuller said.

Town Manager Stephen Eldridge explained that the state had cut subsidies to the town by $500,000. That, plus unexpected cost increases including snow removal and fuel, has left the town scrambling to make up the difference. Every department was asked to make a 5 percent cut in their budgets to stave off a property tax increase, something Lisbon has successfully avoided for five years thanks to budget trimming, sometimes even cutting taxes from previous years.

The council is already anticipating a tax increase of 1.5 mills, or $150 more for a $100,000 home. Attendees were handed two potential budgets. One kept the 1.5 mill increase, which would not affect the school system, and one included an additional 0.75 mill increase, raising taxes a total of 2.25 mills, or $225 for a $100,000 home.

The second budget kept many of the cuts, including the three assistant coaching positions, a reduction of the adult education program, a school police officer and two kindergarten ed tech positions, but most of the positions on the chopping block would be spared. This would still cut about $500,000 from the budget to match the loss of state subsidies.

Parents and students lined up and spoke for nearly two hours. Not one opposed raising taxes, and most had specific programs they said students couldn’t be without.

“There’s a lot of kids in this town who aren’t getting the literacy support they need,” said Laura Campbell, a parent. “They’re not able to read up to grade.” She said loss of ed tech positions would only make things worse by reducing early literacy support.

Several elementary students had conversations in French to demonstrate the value of the elementary school foreign language program. Parents and students argued that Lisbon’s music and art programs had created opportunities that would have been unavailable otherwise. Several argued that with upward of 60 students participating in track, it would be dangerous not to have assistant coaches supervising.

Prudence Grant, chairwoman of the school board, called Monday night’s response “very encouraging.”

“The townspeople were supporting (keeping programs) unanimously, at least here,” Grant said.

A formal hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. May 10 at Lisbon Community School.