The proposed 2025-26 Lisbon school budget was accepted Tuesday after two previous attempts failed.

The Lisbon school budget won voter approval Tuesday, after failing to pass in June and August. The vote was 1,815 to 1,478 in favor of the $21.2 million proposal.

A total of 3,382 voters cast ballots, representing 52.1% of those registered. The first two votes rejecting the budget saw less than half of Tuesday’s total.

The vote in June was 724-312; in August it was 810-548.

After the school board and Town Council decided to send the same budget back to voters in August, Superintendent Richard Green proposed cutting $120,000, which town officials hoped would be enough to get residents’ support Tuesday.

For the past year, Lisbon was embroiled in a tax revolt when accounting errors computing the property tax sent the municipal budget over a financial cliff and forced town officials to raise the tax rate this year by nearly 20%. Voters took out their frustration by rejecting the school budget.

It is unclear where in the budget Green and the school board would have found additional areas to cut if Tuesday’s vote failed, unless programs, teachers and staff were eliminated.

According to statute, the School Department would have had to continue operating under last year’s budget, which is nearly $600,000 less than what failed Aug. 5.

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