Raymond residents will have two slightly different options to choose from when they review the revised school budget at the special town meeting Friday at Jordan Small Middle School.

Voters rejected the first budget proposal at the ratification vote at the polls on June 10. The vote set in motion a second wave of review that began last week when the School Board and the Budget Committee met to discuss how to change the budget in order to get a favorable vote.

The end result of those discussions was separate recommendations by the two groups. The Budget Committee recommends cutting an additional $170,000 from the original budget, while the School Board recommendation only deducts $116,000.

In both cases, the reductions come off the total budget, and ultimately it is the School Board that will decide in which specific areas those cuts are made, said Budget Committee Chairman Rolf Olsen.

“They have the ability to move around line items anyway, so the $170,000 is from the bottom line,” said Olsen.

The budget approved at Friday’s town meeting will then have 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 budget’s defeat at referendum showed him that residents wanted to see a lower budget, Olsen said the simple up-or-down vote didn’t give town officials any more direction.

“You’re still kind of swinging in the wind, trying to figure out why they said no,” he said.

But, Olsen thinks the budget will be successful this time around.

“My gut tells me that whatever number comes out of the town meeting will probably pass at the referendum,” he said.

The original budget proposal, which kept down total spending but increased the town’s share by almost $1 million due to loss of revenues, was approved at the annual town meeting May 28. But changes to state law required for the first time a ratification vote at the polls, and on June 10 Raymond residents shot down the education budget 517-435.