Augusta voters approved the $29.4 million school budget by a wide margin Tuesday and chose new representatives to the City Council and the school board.

The school budget, which councilors had approved in May as part of the total city and school budget of $59.3 million, passed 776-229. There were 1,021 total ballots cast on the school budget — including 16 blanks — which equates to a voter turnout just over 7 percent, according to the city clerk’s office.

In a three-way race for a City Council at-large seat, former school board member Jennifer Day was the top vote getter, with 490 votes.

She defeated retired United Parcel Service manager and former Maine Army National Guard member Robert Trask, who got 313 votes; and former council member Stanley Koski, who got 215 votes.

Day, 47, who is a real estate agent and sales manager, will serve the remainder of an unexpired at-large term that became available when Jeffrey Bilodeau resigned from the council in February.

In a four-way school board write-in contest, Pia Holmes got the most votes with 205, finishing ahead of Holly Kiidli, 64 votes; Kevin Lamoreau, 39; and Roger Mackbach, 13.

Holmes, 68, a retired elementary school principal and former school board member in Manchester, said she was running to offer her expertise and experience to the board. She will fill the remainder of the school board term of Laura Hamilton, who resigned last year. The term expires Dec. 31, 2018.


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