STRAFFORD — The School Board on Tuesday night approved a budget that would keep Strafford’s seventh and eighth graders at The Newton School for the 2020-21 school year.
The $3.38 million budget, passed by a 3-2 vote and representing a 5.4% increase over this year’s budget, also would end a partnership with Thetford Academy for afternoon electives. The budget still needs to be approved by voters at Town Meeting on March 3, and the long-term future remains uncertain for the seventh and eighth grades.
Strafford has been wrestling with how to best serve its seventh and eighth graders for the past few years. In response to parental complaints and an exodus of several middle school students from the K-8 school, the School Board hired an independent consultant and created a task force last year to determine the root causes of discontent and examine solutions. Last fall, seventh and eighth graders began traveling by bus to Thetford Academy in the afternoons for a broader range of electives.
The task force presented the board with several options that had varying impacts on the budget, including one that tuitioned the students out to a designated school all day and one that continued the current relationship with Thetford Academy. At a special meeting last week, the board determined that a decision to tuition students out all day was premature, tabling that option and creating a planning committee to continue looking at possibilities for future years.
School Board Chairwoman Sarah Root said the decision keeps the budget under the state’s excess spending threshold and gives school officials a chance to reimagine and improve the middle school experience.
“And then if we can’t do it, we’ll look at other options,” she said.
Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com or 603-727-3268.