MONMOUTH – There was applause at Cumston Hall Tuesday night when the votes were counted.

Finally, townspeople passed a school budget.

It was the fourth vote and it approved a $7.5 million spending plan for the current school year, up from $7.1 million last year, but with a zero increase in property taxes.

The vote was 312-145, with 16 voters saying they wanted a higher budget and 125 wanting a lower budget.

The first budget was rejected by voters June 10. The second on June 30, and the third on July 23.

“It’s about time,” Selectmen Timothy McDonald said Tuesday night. “It’s good for the town. We need to put this behind us.”

McDonald said the final budget amount is “all right.” He would have preferred what selectmen recommended months ago, a budget that would have increased property taxes by 3.5 percent. “But the school board wasn’t happy with that then.”

School board member Doug Beck was relieved by Tuesday’s vote. Getting a budget “is good for the community to get beyond this. The fears of the economy and energy costs are real,” Beck said. “But communities have an obligation to education children and take care of resources.”

The work now begins to get everybody settled down and to try to work within the “very tight” budget, Beck said.

At the polls, parent Darin Burnham said he voted for the budget. “It needs to get done, but I’m not happy about it.”

Burnham has two children in Monmouth schools. “Those schools are exactly the same way when I went there in the ’80s.” They need more money, Burnham said.

The school budget “has been incredibly divisive in town. It’s time to move forward,” said Rep. Nancy Smith, D-Monmouth. All the energy spent on the school budget now needs to be addressed toward “how we can get Monmouth citizens through the coming winter. If we can get the energy redirected, some good can come from it.”

Many people kept voting “no” because they were reacting to earlier proposed school budgets that would have resulted in significant increases in taxes, Smith said. Those budgets would have increased taxes anywhere from 10.7 percent to 6.9 percent.

In order to offer voters a no-increase-in-taxes budget, about $120,500 was cut from the last proposed budget.

An education technician for special education was cut, along with stipends for the junior varsity boys’ soccer and girls’ softball coaches. During the budget debate “there was a lot of talk about volunteerism,” Beck said. “The question will be, ‘Are those volunteers really there?'”

New carpeting at the elementary school was also cut. “That was not cosmetic,” he said. “It has some level of safety concern. The carpeting is heavily worn and it’s covering what everybody believes is asbestos.” Heating ducts at Monmouth Academy also need attention. Correcting those things won’t happen, he said.

“It really boils down to perpetuating a situation where the town is not maintaining the infrastructure,” Beck said. “We’re not taking care of the physical plant.”