Recount set for Governor Wentworth Regional School District operating budget; residents decry rising school taxes

The moderator read a notice into the Brookfield Town record that a recount is scheduled for Article 2 of the Governor Wentworth Regional School District warrant: a recount will be held March 20, 2025, at 3 p.m. in the Kingswood Regional Middle School multi‑purpose room at 404 South Main Street, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. The article under recount would approve an operating budget posted at $67,427,393; the transcript records the district’s default budget as $66,574,504 if the article is defeated. The school board had recommended the appropriation by a 6‑2 vote, according to the notice read into the record.

Residents who spoke during the Brookfield Town Meeting urged attendance at the recount and expressed strong concern about rising school district costs and property taxes. A resident identified in the transcript as Ed Kamau urged people to attend the March 20 recount, saying school budgets in the region have been increasing rapidly and are becoming “unsustainable” for taxpayers. Multiple speakers urged higher public participation in deliberative sessions and in the recount process; one commenter noted that prior petition efforts to create a school district budget committee had been defeated at the district level.

The moderator and town commenters clarified procedural points about the recount: it is a recount of recorded votes, not a revote, and the transcript records that a recount proceeds by publicly counting ballots or machine totals according to the district’s recount rules. The notice read into the record references statutes and procedural language as printed on the district recount notice; the meeting transcript gives the notice and instructs residents about the March 20 recount date and location.

Public remarks at the town meeting also summarized the difference between the district’s proposed operating budget and the default budget and noted that a sizable share of prior increases were already committed expenditures the district could not undo (for example, contracts). The transcript includes a resident’s remark that the district’s operating budget rose from roughly $62 million to the mid‑$60 million range in a single year and that the district serves fewer than 3,000 students, making per‑student costs comparatively high.

Ending The meeting record left the recount notice on the record and encouraged Brookfield voters to attend the March 20, 2025 recount at Kingswood Regional Middle School. The town clerk’s office and the school district office are the official sources for recount procedures and certified vote totals.