Hundreds of students at South Burlington High School walked out of class Monday ahead of today’s third attempt to get voter approval for the school district’s budget.

The latest proposal by the district has been pared down to $68 million with a projected property tax increase of 9.5 percent. While most of the students who walked out ahead of the bell Monday are too young to vote, they hope their voices are being heard.

“I’m a little nervous because I know a lot of people, you know, their kids have already gone to college and they’re not in the district anymore, and it’s hard to care as much about it as we do,” said sophomore Niara Wijetunga.

After spreading the word via social media, students marched to the athletic fields behind the school, many with signs in hand. While they admit they are nervous, they are optimistic this budget will in fact be the one that finally passes.

“I think we have a lot of support in the community,” said sophomore Molly Leavey. “And I have faith that community members are kind of waking up and realizing how big of an issue this is to so many of the youth in our community.”

At Town Meeting in March, district voters balked at the initial budget proposal that would have raised taxes 23 percent. About a month later, voters rejected a revised proposal that would have raised taxes 14.5 percent.

Students hope voters can accept the current proposal, especially with multiple teaching positions, classes and extracurricular activities likely on the chopping block if the budget is turned down yet again.

“Classes like world languages, music, a lot of those kind of smaller classes, as well as AP’s,” Leavy said. “A lot of like really advanced science and math classes are at risk because they’re not very popular.”

Seven other Vermont school districts are holding budget votes today, including St. Johnsbury, which is on its third try. Essex-Westford and Washington Central will hold their second vote.

If any of them fail again, the districts will likely have time for one final revote before the fiscal deadline of July 1.