Sedgwick voters approve $3.1 million budget

GSA tuition vote later

- ANNE BERLEANT

SEDGWICK—Voters approved $624,000 at town meeting March 7 to fund everything from town government and fire fighting to preserving town records and exploring a new three-town transfer station. An education budget of $2,715,277 also passed, for a $3.1 million total budget for 2020-21.

The school budget represents a 4.89 percent increase, mainly from nine more students set to enroll in high school than currently, and teacher and staff salary increases and health insurance costs.

Nine additional students at nearly $12,000 each “makes a big increase,” Superintendent Chris Elkington said.

“This does not have to do with the issue of GSA raising their tuition,” School Board Chairman Marti Brill noted.

Voters will address a George Stevens Academy request for $300 in additional per-student tuition for 2020-21 at a special town meeting come spring. However, Elkington noted that historically not only will it be the largest number of students going to GSA but that “several parents have moved into town for the purposes of sending their kids to high school” from a town with school choice.

Zoe Tenney, a Sedgwick resident and GSA trustee, addressed voters: “I hope we go in the same direction as Penobscot and Brooksville,” towns that approved the request at town meeting last week.