SANFORD — Voters approved the 2016-17 school budget by a decisive margin in a revote Tuesday – 1,036 to 841, or by 55.1 percent to 44.7 percent in unofficial totals.

A second vote on the budget was required because it failed to pass June 14. In the June vote, 968 voters cast “no” ballots, while 862 people voted “yes.”

The vote came about two weeks before school is scheduled to open for the year.

“(The vote) is a great example of engaged parents getting out there and getting the job done,” said Ed Cormier, a parent and member of the Parent Teacher Association.

Cormier was among a trio of parents who turned up at City Hall Tuesday night to watch the results roll in from Sanford’s three voting wards.

The results were streamed live over Facebook by Paul Auger, a Sanford High School history and government teacher who has hosted coverage of Sanford’s elections from the council chambers in City Hall for many years.

The absentee totals were announced first, and the die appeared to be cast. In the end it was, with a majority of voters in all three wards approving the budget.

In all, 1,880 people cast ballots Tuesday, a fraction of Sanford’s 13,410 registered voters, but up a bit from the June 14 school budget, when only 1,830 ballots were cast.

“Thank you to citizens of Sanford for supporting your schools by voting yes on the school budget,” said Superintendent David Theoharides in an email. “School opens in two weeks and now we can focus our attention on providing a high quality educational environment for our students.”

Although both the school and municipal budgets were rejected by voters in June, under the terms of Sanford’s city charter, if the voter turnout is less than 25 percent of the number of people who cast ballots in the last gubernatorial election, the municipal budget is deemed to have passed.

There was a question, however, whether the school budget fell under the charter. It was determined by legal counsel that in the school’s case, state law, which requires only a simple majority, prevailed. Therefore, the city was required to hold another vote.

The city’s Budget Committee and City Council voted to send the same $38.1 million budget back to voters, of which $14.4 million comes from local taxation.

Proponents said the school budget had already gone through a thorough vetting, and pointed to a spike in the number of special education students, hefty increases in health insurance premiums and more.

Some teaching positions that became vacant with retirements won’t be filled, and at least three grant-funded positions have expired.

Emily Sheffield, who was among the parents watching the results roll in at City Hall, urged Sanford residents to be engaged. She said she doesn’t always have the time to go to meetings, but reads, researches and emails questions to School Committee and City Council members – and gets responses.

Parent Jennifer Davie urged residents to come together.

“Every time you have an election, you have winners and losers,” Davie said. “I hope the losers don’t feel disenfranchised with the process. We don’t need more division.”

Davie encouraged those who had opposed the budget to communicate their thoughts as the next budget process unfolds – work on the 2017-18 budget starts in September.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.