FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 Board of Directors set a timeline and began deliberations for a new proposed district budget figure for the 2016-2017 academic year.

At a regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday night, the board voted to set July 14 as the date for the districtwide meeting on the new budget figure with a validation vote set for July 28. Directors began budget deliberations at Tuesday’s meeting and will continue with deliberations on June 23. They will vote on setting a new proposed budget figure at a meeting on June 28.

This is the second time in two years the board is back to square one in devising a proposed budget after voters rejected the budget at the first referendum. The 2015-16 $32.04 million budget was narrowly approved at a second referendum vote in July.

Six of the district’s 10 towns voted against the budget in the June 14 referendum, with a final vote of 1,757 against and 1,518 in favor.

Voters in Farmington, Industry, Starks and Weld approved the 2016-17 school year budget, but it was defeated in Chesterville, New Sharon, New Vineyard, Temple, Wilton and Vienna.

Voters were asked to validate the $32,973,180 budget that was given the first round of approval at the June 1 districtwide meeting. It represented a 2.9 percent increase over the current year’s budget and included additional revenue that would have been used to minimize the impact on local allocations. Four of the towns — Farmington, New Sharon, Temple and Wilton — would have had a decrease in their local allocation if it had been approved.

Discussion at Tuesday’s meeting was strained for the first hour, with board members straying from the topic of deliberations and arguing over why for the second year in a row the budget has been rejected at the first referendum vote.

One board member made a motion to set the budget at the $32.04 million it operated under this past year, though the motion failed with a vote of four to 11. After the failed motion, Wilton’s school board director Cherieann Harrison expressed that her opposition for the motion was because she believed the board would not be doing the job they were elected to if they accepted a flat budget after the “vote of mixed confidence” the first proposed budget figure received at the polls on June 14.

“We need to do what we are here for, to do some responsible fiscal ideas,” Harrison said.

Deliberations at Tuesday’s meeting began with going line by line through the district’s budget for transportation and facilities. Ward said this part of the rejected budget was an area where the board heard from district residents that they believed could be reduced.

Lauren Abbate — 861-9252

labbate@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate