Raymond voters will weigh in July 7 on a school budget that is $116,000 lighter than the spending plan that failed at the polls last month.

At the June 27 special town meeting, residents approved a $8.93 million budget that included an additional $116,000 in cuts made by the Raymond School Board after the initial budget proposal failed 517-435 at the polls June 10.

The cuts were made in a few areas, including in the operations and maintenance budget and the superintendent’s office budget. Also included in the savings was just over $40,000 saved by capping the tuition rate, an action that was taken at the regular town meeting and not included in the first budget proposal.

At the annual town meeting, residents voted to cap the tuition rate paid by the Raymond School Department for its students to attend local high schools at the rate charged by Windham High School, which was around $7,300 last year.

Some area schools charge more than Windham, however. Due to the decision, any amount incurred by a student above the Windham rate would have to covered by the student’s parents. As a result of the change, around $40,000 was saved in the Raymond budget.

The Budget/Finance Committee recommended an additional $54,000 in cuts, but the more than 100 residents at Friday’s town meeting went with the School Board’s budget.

The budget approved at Friday’s town meeting now has to be ratified at a referendum vote scheduled for Monday, July 7, with polls open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. at Jordan Small Middle School.

While the total school budget is down this year, the amount raised from taxation rose by around $700,000 due to the loss of state subsidy and the absence of surplus to use to offset taxes.

While cuts were made after the first proposal failed, they were not enough for Selectman Joe Bruno, who said Raymond’s tax increase this year is out of line with neighboring communities.

“The overall town share is still up 9.8 percent,” Bruno said Tuesday. “If you look at local communities, no one is passing those kinds of budgets. They are all in the 3.5-5 percent range. Could we have gone that low? I don’t think so. But we could have been in the 6-6.5 range.”

Still, Bruno expects the revised budget will be ratified at the polls July 7, though mostly due to low turnout following the long holiday weekend.

“I don’t see a lot of people going who don’t have a stake in it,” he said.