13 school districts yet to approve budgets as July 1 funding deadline looms

In a revote last Tuesday night, Hartland residents voted 551-537 to reject the FY25 Hartland Elementary School (HES) budget.

Tuesday’s special Town Meeting took place after a petition successfully overturned the April 2 passage of the HES budget. The school budget, which was approved by 9 votes (320-311) in April, remained unchanged when it was put to the voters again this week. It asked residents to approve a budget of $11,040,567.

According to Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union superintendent Christine Bourne, the revoting of the same budget is required by state statute, which says that “the form of the ballot shall be as follows: ‘Article 1: cite the article to be reconsidered as lastly voted.’” In order for the budget to fail, Bourne had said the number of “No” votes had to be “more than two-thirds the original number of ‘Yes’ votes,” meaning that at least 214 residents had to vote against the budget for it to fail.

Hartland Elementary School board chair Nicole Buck said in a statement to the Standard after the vote, “The board will be holding an emergency meeting on Thursday to decide the next steps. There are very few cuts the board can make and those small cuts will have very little impact on the tax rate but will impact the kids. The board can warn an election with seven days warning at this point in the process.” – The Vermont Standard, May 30

Hartland is now the second town to reconsider its initial Yes vote on the 2024-25 school budget. Twinfield – the two-town school district for Marshfield and Plainfield, the historical progressive of home of what was once Goddard College. They voted Yes at Town Meeting, but so narrowly that someone petitioned for a revote – at which the voters rejected the same budget. They’re up on June 11, too.

Thursday, voters in a large, two-county school district became the first to reject their budget for the fourth time this year.

Slate Valley Unified Union School District voters turned down the budget by 30 votes. Slate Valley covers several Rutland County towns and the Addison County town of Orwell.

As in Hartland, the school board didn’t cut a dime from the budget that failed the third time. While legislators like Rep. Peter Conlon of Cornwall and Sen. Ruth Hardy of Addison County told the press that school boards have cut budgets as much as they responsibly could, voters seemed to think someone, somewhere – maybe even legislators like Conlon and Hardy – could have cut something, somewhere.

VDC got this email from former Castleton Town attorney and moderator John Burke Friday morning: “This board is pretty tone deaf. I tried to tell them that some movement downward would tip this vote but they chose to ignore the voters. I hope our students listen better than the board!”

So the 2024 property revolt continues. At Town Meeting, more than 30 school districts rejected their budgets in the face of likely 20% property tax increases. Now the number is 13 (our best count). Seeking to provide property tax relief, the Legislature didn’t cut statewide school spending but instead created two new forms of taxation – on software and air BnBs – to fund education and drop the estimated statewide property tax to 13-14%.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul’s property taxes may have induced more voters to say yes. So did pro-budget rallies, often spearheaded by students. And some voters may just be bored, distracted or concerned about the prospect of their school district having to borrow money at today’s high interest rates in order to pay the school’s bills after July 1.

Such considerations may have been in the minds of voters of the Rivendell school district, serving several Orange county towns on the Connecticut River. They passed their budget Saturday.

Five of those 13 current No districts will vote next week, on Tuesday June 4 – a full three months after Town Meeting. These districts cover some Grand Isle County towns, Milton, Fairfax, and small towns in Windsor and Windham counties.

New school board did good work, vote yes, Milton conservative activist says

One prominent Republican in Milton is urging voters to pass the budget in an op-ed in the Milton Independent. Wendy Wilton, a former state senator, said the Legislature’s school funding plan will still result in high local property taxes, even if the school district imposes deep cuts that will end up harming at-risk students.

Wilton writes:

“The MTSD board has proposed a third budget, cutting three administrative positions. This signals the new school board has heard voters by reducing overhead within the budget handed to them by the prior board and the administration.

“It’s time to support this budget.

“Here’s why:

“Cutting Milton’s budget further will only harm our district, while overspending districts will continue to benefit from the Education Fund relying on revenues from other districts and taxpayers statewide, and Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) is a factor affecting Milton’s budget under the Act 60/68 mechanism without any way for the MTSD board to change that. If it weren’t for the CLA factor, Milton’s budget would have been a zero increase.”

School district votes next week

The Tuesday following, June 11, it will be the turn of voters in Brandon, Swanton and Bristol and their surrounding towns.