REHOBOTH — The Board of Selectmen, and not Town Clerk Kathleen Conti, will select the date for voters to decide whether the town should exceed a state law limiting how much taxes can be raised from one year to the next — a vote that will determine if the school district can have more money to restore teachers and replace the high school’s septic system.

Town Administrator David Marciello said the “misunderstanding” occurred because the selectmen held off picking a date at their meeting earlier this week because Marciello wanted to make sure Conti and other town staff would be available in July, when many take vacations, for such an election.

“It was late in the evening and I knew what I meant, but I can see how others didn’t,” Marciello said.

The selectmen may chose a date at their meeting on Monday, set for at 7:30 p.m. at the town’s Council on Aging building on Bay State Road. The time must be at least 35 days from the moment the selectmen notify Conti in writing, which could be as early as Tuesday morning.

Therefore, the earliest date for an override vote would be July 15.

Yet a memo about Monday’s meeting doesn’t state the selectmen plan to pick a date at the upcoming gathering. Instead, it says the matters to be discussed are how the ballot questions will be worded. Marciello sent letters yesterday inviting the following to attend: school district administrators, Dighton and Rehoboth’s regional School Committee members and the Dighton Board of Selectmen.

At the Rehoboth selectmen’s meeting earlier this week, audience members raised concerns primarily about one ballot question. The query that was drafted by the town’s legal counsel asks if the town should raise, through additional taxes, $970,201 more for the school district.

Yet it isn’t the amount that brings the town’s budget over the state’s Proposition 2½ cap. The Finance Committee presented a budget that didn’t exceed the levy limit at the Annual Town Meeting two months ago. In it, the committee proposed a $524,000 increase over this year’s town allocation for the schools. The total amount toward the district’s operating expenses would have been $11.22 million if approved.

But the voters gave more after school officials said the extra money would restore 11 positions at Beckwith Middle and Palmer River Elementary schools. The amount approved was $11.67 million, or $446,211 over what the Finance Committee was recommending the district receive.

That’s the amount over the cap and that’s the number school officials want to use for the question.

The selectmen are also concerned with the lack of wording for the ballot question dealing with the septic system. It asks voters to approve additional money for a new septic system for Dighton Rehoboth Regional High School. The current system is about 43 years old and hasn’t been compliant with federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations since 2006.

The query will not have the amount to be spent or will it explain the project in detail, which has been debated and criticized by some over the last couple of months. The amount approved for the project at Town Meeting was $1.2 million.

All are waiting for a written legal opinion from the town’s lawyers regarding what can and cannot be used and changed based on state guidelines. Marciello said it will be presented and disbursed at Monday’s meeting.

apina@projo.com