By Michael Bielawski
Voters in the Slate Valley Unified School District (Bensen, Castleton, Fair Haven, Orwell) yesterday became the latest to reject a proposed school budget for the second time this year.
That makes five Nos among the six revotes known to VDC.
31 school budgets were voted down on Town Meeting Day, March 5. Altogether almost a third of the school districts and supervisory unions in the state rejected their budgets as Vermonters anticipated about 20% in new property taxes next year.
Said no at least twice
VDC has reported that schools in Georgia, South Burlington, St. Johnsbury, and the Kingdom East School District all have voted no a second time to reduced school budgets. The Kingdom East (Lyndon, Lyndonville, Burke, Wheelock, other surrounding towns) revote failed by more than 2-1. The count was 652 to 318.
Slate Valley, voting on Thursday April 11, also rejected the second try budget by an almost 2-1 margin. Superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell expressed disappointment on the school’s Facebook page.
“The vote count was 544 in favor and 947 against. We understand this news may be disappointing for some, as it is for us, considering there are factors beyond our control,” she wrote.
She also wrote, “We encourage open dialogue and welcome any suggestions or concerns you may have. We’ll soon hold meetings to discuss the failure, gather feedback, and explore options moving forward. Your participation and engagement are vital during this process.”
Slate Valley is already a low spending school per student when compared to other public schools.
“Our per pupil spending is $11,320.94 which is an increase of 0.20% from last year. This is the second lowest in the region,” the budget description notes.
The statewide average for ‘per-equalized pupil’ spending is $20,505.37.
Passed on second try
The Alburgh school district budget passed on their second attempt. The Islander Newspaper reported that voters approved Alburgh’s school district budget with a revote Tuesday with a tally of 85 to 58, which was described as a low turnout.
Still waiting, cutting budgets
While some schools await their second budget votes, spending cuts are being applied. Some school boards claim to have few options to cut.
Appearing in the minutes of a special meeting for the Holland School Board on March 26 were adjustments made for a new budget vote. The board for the NEK town states, “The new revised proposed budget was dropped down by $39,201.00. There’s not many places we can cut. So the budget that was voted down was $1,109,963.00 and the new budget that we will be voting on will be 1,070,762.00.”
On the board’s agenda for their Tuesday night meeting was to “Prepare for Budget Informational Meeting and Community Forum.”
South Hero’s Folsom School got the process started. According to an update on their website on Friday, big cuts are being made to this next budget.
“The decision was made to reduce the budget by about $150,000 with several cuts that will minimally impact students, programs or staff. In addition, with increased revenue, the tax rate (without the CLA factored in) is very close to last year’s,” it states.
An administrative spokesperson told VDC on Thursday that they anticipate the vote will be in May.
The Washington Central School Board set a date of May 7 for voters in Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester to approve a second budget version for their pre-K-12 district. The new tax impact is 7.83%, down substaintaily from the initial 16.4% increase.
Milton Town School will have its budget revote on April 16. Their new version cuts their tax increase by about a half million dollars and reduces their tax rate increase from 15.36% to 13.34%.
Enosburg Falls Middle School and Northern Mountain Valley in Richford are having revotes on April 30. The two schools had their second draft budgets reduced by $477,646 and $434,293 respectively.
Barre Unified School will have their revote on May 14. There will be substantial changes for the next proposal.
“Those adjustments included a mix of cuts — more than $720,000 — and new revenue — about $686,500 — with the latter coming from the district’s tax stabilization fund,” reports the Times Argus.
Elmore-Morristown school district will have their revote on April 16. The budget will be almost the same as the one that was defeated on Town Meeting day, just $120,000 is cut from the initial $17.53 million by not hiring a new literacy coach.
Other revotes
Champlain Valley School District, Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School, and Northfield School are also scheduled their revote for April 16. Montpelier and Otter Valley Union Middle and High School, and Missisquoi Valley School District will have revotes on April 30. Washington Central Unified (Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, and Worcester) will revote on May 7.
Voters getting upset
Springfield will have an informational meeting on their next budget on April 15.
On the Town of Springfield’s Facebook page, Matthew Winter wrote “People wonder why we can’t afford to live in this town and they just keep voting stuff through. Where do you people think all this money comes from. Wake up it comes from our pockets.”
Stephen Buckingham wrote, “there is no way I can vote for the school budget.” Buckingham noted that his family originally had moved into town largely because they thought it had a great school system.
Addison Northwest’s budget will be voted on again on April 30 and there will be an informational meeting the night before. They’ve cut $1,732.077.99 from the initial proposal. Also on April 30, Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union will have their revote.
Confusion about spending rules
Hartford withdrew their initial budget without a public vote so they are still getting ready to have their initial vote. Their website states, “We withdrew the first budget because, after the School Board had voted on and warned our (first) 2025 budget, the Legislature changed the law governing how education funding works in Vermont.”
In 2022 Act 127 passed which stated that if schools increased their budgets by less than 10%, then the state would pay it down to 5%. So when Hartford wrote their budget for an 8% increase but then the legislature reneged on the offer via Act 850.
More schools are dealing with the aftermath of their Town Meeting Day rejections. The whole list can be found here.
What happens after July 1?
Districts that still have no approved school budget by July 1 may apply to fund their new fiscal year at 87% of current spending. The funds will need to be borrowed.
What is the Legislature doing to solve the problem?
The House Ways and Means Committee and legislative education committees are puzzling over plans to shift away from the property tax to other taxes. None of the current plans will take effect in time for the coming school year, Gov. Phil Scott said at a recent press conference.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle