WALES — A day after the school district budget was defeated for a third time, Regional School District 4 officials decided Wednesday night to schedule a fourth budget referendum for Nov. 5, to coincide with the presidential election and attract more voters.

Three proposed RSU 4 budgets for the current fiscal year have failed at the polls. The most recent vote, held Tuesday on a $22.67 million proposal, was the closest yet, with 374 in favor and 393 against, but had the lowest turnout by far of the three referendums.

Since the initial proposal and the start of the referendum process, the district has operated on three different budgets.

“We have to redo paperwork, we have to redo communications, we have to update all of our information,” Superintendent Katy Grondin said. “When a new budget comes, we have to readjust our budget based on what that number is and what those reductions are.”

Voters in the district, which includes Litchfield, Sabattus and Wales, rejected the original $23.38 million proposal June 11 by a vote of 498 in favor and 813 against. Voters in July also rejected a second proposed budget of $22.71 million, with 337 in favor and 514 opposed.

The proposed budgets have cumulatively decreased the tax impact by almost $1 million, reducing additional local taxes by 18% from the original proposal. Much of the reduction in tax impact came from using $200,000 more of the district’s reserve fund on the revenue side of the budget.

Before going to a referendum, the budget is approved by voters at a public budget meeting. The district then uses the approved budget to conduct day-to-day operations of the district until the budget is passed in a referendum or a new budget is approved at a public budget meeting.

Board Chairperson Nicole Russell said Wednesday a public budget meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 23, for the Nov. 5 referendum.

In addition to switching budgets, the district pays about $1,800 for two sets of mailers sent to residents each time a referendum approaches — one before the public budget meeting and one before the referendum — to inform them about the budget and upcoming vote.

The district also pays for ballots to be printed, but the costs vary widely depending on how many voters are expected to turn out. The Nov. 5 election is expected to have many more voters than the previous referendums, and thousands more ballots will have to be printed, adding to the district’s costs.

At Wednesday’s meeting, board members instructed Grondin to find potential additional savings to consider during their next meeting Oct. 9, before approving another proposal to go before voters.

Grondin said her office will work to find additional savings, but the current budget is already very tight, and any additional significant reductions could be “crippling” for the central office.

The district also needed four referendums to pass last year’s budget, and Grondin said she hopes “it’s only going to take four votes this year.”

Several board members said they did not want to cut more funding from the budget. Instead, they said they wanted to focus on getting many residents to vote.

“Yes or no is irrelevant. We’re not getting enough people to show up and vote,” RSU 4 board member Douglas Bumpus II said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I’m starting to think that it’s unfair, as a board member, to have people complaining that we’re not doing enough, and that we need to support the staff when the staff are speaking.”