POLAND — RSU 16 officials Monday tentatively set Nov. 8 as the date for the district’s fourth attempt to pass a school budget.

“Nov. 8 is our goal, but we have some double checking to do,” School Committee Chairman Mary Ella Jones said. The problem, she said, has to do with election law.

The committee would like to hold the referendum on the school budget on the same day that voters statewide are going to the polls to decide questions dealing with casinos and same-day voter registration, but the figure for the school budget won’t — and can’t — be decided upon until the week of Oct. 24 when voters from Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland hold a district budget meeting.

The law governing the school budget referendum vote requires it be held within 14 days of the district budget meeting.

This raises a problem for people voting absentee.

Town clerks will be able to distribute absentee ballots on the statewide referendum questions later this week, but it will be about two weeks before the absentee ballots for the school budget referendum can even be printed.

School Committee members also opted to ask voters at the district budget meeting to approve a school budget at the same $17.8 million level that was rejected in the Sept. 13 referendum vote.

The measure passed with three dissenting voices. Steve Holbrook and Tina Love, both from Minot, argued that voters had made it clear in three referendum votes that they wanted to see a smaller budget. Scott Tiner, also from Minot, voted against the $17.8 million budget because he wanted it increased.