NAPLES – The third time was a charm for the Lake Region school budget on Tuesday as residents in the four sending towns approved a $26.58 million budget.

After defeats in May and June at the ballot box, the budget passed 906-820. And while Casco and Sebago voters again rejected the budget, greater voter turnout in Bridgton and Naples helped push the budget forward.

Tuesday’s budget proposal was identical to the one voters rejected June 30. In deliberations last month, school officials whittled another $75,000 prior to Aug. 2’s budget validation hearing. However, attendees to the annual town meeting-type event opted to restore the funding, which would have cut an elementary school teacher’s position as well as money to allow nonprofit organizations to use district buildings.

“I’m really relieved it passed,” said Superintendent Kathleen Beecher. “What made the difference was parents trying to get out the vote, and I really appreciate that because we need to focus on education, not trying to get budgets passed.”

Beecher took over for outgoing Superintendent Patrick Phillips, who left June 30 to lead RSU 23 in Saco, Dayton and Old Orchard Beach. To residents who voted against the budget, Beecher said she and school board officials received the message sent by disgruntled voters.

“Going forward a year from now, we will be taking their concerns into consideration,” Beecher said.

According to SAD 61’s finance coordinator, Sherrie Small, the new budget for the upcoming school year is $26,576,223, compared to last year’s budget of $25,874,105. The $700,000 increase represents the first year of debt service for the new Lake Region High School and vocational center project, a $13.8 million project voters approved in 2009. Without the $705,000 debt service payment, the new budget is actually about $3,000 less than last year’s budget.

Bob Levesque, president of the Casco Tax Fairness Association – an organization that called for budgetary thrift and paid for large ads comparing Lake Region’s budget to other Maine districts – agrees with Beecher that parents likely made the difference in Tuesday’s vote.

“When you have 1,900 students, parents alone could make a huge difference, but I don’t think it’s a mandate at all,” he said. “I think people probably have had enough, but I like to think the ads we ran helped make the voters more enlightened as to what we’re facing here in this district.”

Because of the town’s property values, Levesque said, Casco property taxpayers will get hit with an proportionally higher 11.89 percent increase from the recently passed school budget, compared to Bridgton property taxpayers’ 2.35 percent increase, Naples’ 5.32 percent increase and Sebago’s 3.08 percent increase.

“What they need to do is start now thinking about next year’s budget,” Levesque said. “And I hope the people sitting on the school board will recognize the situation and start thinking about cuts now. Hopefully, they’ve gotten some religion and will look harder next year where they can reduce costs.”

Levesque’s association will push for a full revaluation of Casco properties, possibly trying to get the measure on the November ballot. He said 38 of the 47 homes sold this year were sold below assessed value and half of the homes listed for sale are below assessed value.

“That should tell you right there that our properties are overvalued,” Levesque said. “And if we cut property values by say 20 percent across the board, which other communities in Maine already have done, I estimate we would increase school subsidy $1 million. That’s huge. Our properties have declined in value but our assessments haven’t kept up. So while we made a flap over school spending this year, and that’s very important, the real cure is for all the towns in the district to perform a reval to get these values down to something more sensible and realistic.”