MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s back to the drawing board for dozens of school districts after Town Meeting Day votes gave them a failing grade. An estimated 29 school budgets — nearly one-third — out of the 97 that voted (three have not been tallied) during Tuesday’s Town Meetings were rejected, according to the Vermont Superintendents Association. Now, districts are beginning the process of cutting costs before going back to the voters.
Town Meeting Day voters in the Montpelier Roxbury School District generally say “yes” to their school budget, but not this year. Voters shot down the plan which would have raised property taxes 23%.
“I honestly had no idea how this town meeting would go,” said Superintendent Libby Bonesteel. She says they are scrambling to come up with a new budget and would need to chop $2.5 million just to get the tax rate hike under 10%.
“We’re talking about supports for students, programming, entire school buildings. That’s what $2.5 million equates to — entire buildings that are the center of their communities.”
“With what schools are being asked to do and the environment that they are doing it, costs are mounting,” said Jeff Francis with the Vermont Superintendents Association.
Officials say school budgets are rising because schools have become human service hubs, adding positions to deal with student behavior and mental health that were previously funded by COVID cash. Other cost drivers include deferred building maintenance and soaring teacher health care costs. Add in changes to the education funding system this year created by Act 127 and some communities faced double-digit property tax increases
The widespread budget failures may be an inflection point for how the state funds education and districts say they need state lawmakers to step in.
“It took us a couple of hundred years to get here. We’re not going to get out of it in a couple of months,” said Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, who chairs the House Committee on Education. He says they are looking at steps to help local schools like restarting a school construction program, allowing districts to team up to pay for services, winding down PCB testing mandates, and taking a second look at school consolidation. They may also look at adding other tax revenues to the Education Fund to ease the burden on property taxes. But a complete overhaul of the funding system isn’t likely this year. “Short of draconian cuts or a new magic revenue stream, it’s going to take a few years to figure out what sort of system Vermonters want and what kind of system they can afford.”
Education finance reform has been a long-simmering point of discussion at the Statehouse as education spending has skyrocketed as enrollment dropped.
Francis with the Superintendents Association says it will require honest collaboration on the state and local levels, otherwise… “It’s going to be challenging for the state of Vermont to declare that it is a welcoming place for families — and particularly new families — that we want to attract to the state,” he said.
Like several other school boards across the state, Montpelier is meeting Wednesday night to consider a path forward.
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