[A]mid an intense conflict with the teacher’s union, the Burlington School District released a detailed budget estimate on Friday showing what the school system will spend on different types of expenses this year.
The district faced pressure from the union and the local community to release the line-item budget for fiscal year 2017. Additionally, VTDigger submitted a public records request for relevant data and began to analyze more than 160 pages in spending estimates.
The district’s data shows that school instruction is the vast majority of costs. VTDigger’s data shows that paying teacher salaries, payroll taxes, and fringe benefits represents more than half of the school’s budget.
Fran Brock, head of the Burlington Education Association, said at a public meeting that the board has “not been honest with us or this community about what this district really has in its funds and its treasury.”
“You have to answer to the city of Burlington and the fact that you are continuing to pull down the education of our children — shame on you,” Brock said.
School Board Chair Mark Porter said Friday evening that there has always been a line-item-budget. “The new expenditure summary goes into more detail to help everyone understand that this board is nothing but transparent in how we spend the community’s dollars,” Porter said.
The Burlington School Board imposed working conditions on teachers on Sept. 8 after failing to come to agreement on a one-year contract. The teachers say they have receded significantly from their original ask; they are asking for a 3.25 percent raise in salary and to pay 15 percent of health insurance costs.
The school board’s final offer was for a 2.75 percent salary increase with 16 percent copay for health care and $80,000 toward tuition reimbursement. However, under the board’s offer, if an employee leaves the district within three years of using their benefit they would have to repay it to the school board.
Since the board imposed the conditions Sept. 8, the teachers have been picketing and urging board members to come back to the table and sign a contract.
The teachers are not on strike.
On Wednesday, the school board agreed to reopen talks but with the caveat that “all available funding” had been committed in the employment policy they imposed and they will not cut or deficit spend.
The Burlington Education Association, representing the teachers, balked. The association said that putting conditions on the talks wouldn’t allow for a “true negotiation.”
Porter has said the board cut $1.55 million from programs and administration to come up with a budget that would not trigger the Act 46 allowable growth penalty. He added that it would take an additional $400,000 to raise teacher pay by 3.25 percent requested by the union and keep health care copays at 15 percent. The school board says such an increase would require cutting positions or programs.
Through the request under the Vermont Public Records Act, VTDigger acquired more than 150 pages of revenue and expense data. Nathan Lavery, Burlington Schools Business Manager said the information was in draft form and incomplete. VTDigger condensed the approximate revenue and expenses into larger categories that would be more understandable to the public.
A visualization of the data is available here.
