Voters on Tuesday approved holding the district’s local option budget at 33 percent in a mail ballot election.

The local option budget is funding raised by local taxes for school districts. They help districts and communities have a little more control over their school funding.

“We use local option money just to pay for the general operation of the school, including teacher salaries and equipment and transportation and utilities,” superintendent Rick Doll told The Budget in an interview earlier this year. “The mail-in ballot is new for the community as well because we have never had a mail-in election.”

Eighty-four percent of voters said yes to keeping the local option budget the same, and 16 percent voted no. If the majority had voted no, the Lawrence school district would have faced decreased funding of $1.4 million. This could have impacted at-risk students or athletic and art programs.