LYME — Voters approved a $7.3 million budget at the annual School District meeting on Thursday. That marks a 3.7 percent increase from this year’s budget.

Principal Jeff Valance said the addition of three special education aides and twice-weekly music classes and changing the counselor position from part-time to full-time contributed to that increase.

Valance said he’s seen more students going to the counselor.

“Schools are seeing anxiety at levels not seen before,” he said.

Also included in the budget is a 3 percent raise for non-teaching staff and some changes to insurance enrollments.

School Board member John Voegele said the board “doesn’t really know” how the budget increase would impact the tax rate.

“It depends on (property) valuations and surpluses,” Voegele said.

In a presentation about accomplishments and challenges for the Lyme School, Valance touched on how state and federal funding affects the school budget.

If there’s less money coming from those sources, that means the local school district has more ground to make up, he said.

Resident Earl Strout said state funding has stayed at similar levels while the cost to educate students has gone up.

“As taxpayers, there’s no one behind us,” Strout said. “We’re the end of the rope.”

How the state funds public education has been a central topic of discussion statewide and the focus of several bills in the Statehouse. Currently, the state pays towns about $3,600 per student. This is known as adequacy aid, and the average cost per student in the state is about $15,000.

Jennifer Boylston encouraged the nearly 100 people in attendance to reach out to their representatives to talk about education funding.

She said she’s found representatives “receptive” when she’s made trips to Concord to talk about the issue.

Voters passed all three articles dealing with transfers from the surplus fund to a number of reserve funds.

The School Board, however, proposed an amendment changing the amount of money to be transferred to the high school tuition trust fund from $130,000 to $25,000.

That’s because the School Board is anticipating it will not need to use $105,000 from the high school trust fund, approved at the last School District meeting, to cover the tuition expenses for this school year.

That money would instead go to lowering taxes, Valance said.

As of now, the School Board said it’s projecting a $25,000 surplus by the end of the year. Valance said these transfers would take place only if there is a surplus in the budget.

Residents will decide two races for School Board seats on Tuesday, March 12.

Vincent Berk and Yolanda Bujarski are running for a two-year seat.

Berk has three children in the Lyme school system and previously taught computer engineering at Dartmouth. Bujarski is a former physician and currently is a member of the Parent Teacher Organization.

Phil Barta and Becky Wipfler are running for the three-year seat.

Barta previously served on the Lyme Budget Committee. Wipfler is a former teacher and currently works as an educational consultant at the Upper Valley Educators Institute.

Voting by Australian ballot will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Lyme School gym.

Daniela Vidal Allee can be reached at dallee@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.