Editor’s note: This commentary is a letter from members of PTOS at Burlington schools to Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Burlington City Council. The PTO members are listed at the end of the letter.
Mayor Weinberger and City Council members,
[W]e, the PTO leaders of the Burlington School District, expect that our city leadership will do everything in its power to apply PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) funds to non-educational school district needs. It is our understanding that the city charter states that PILOT funds collected by the city are to be shared annually with the Burlington School District. Currently less than half of those funds, collected by the city for school district use, are being used for school district needs. Despite the obstacles created by the Vermont Agency of Education, which have changed the ways these funds can be used by the city and the BSD collectively, we expect all parties involved to commit to finding creative ways for these funds to contribute to school district needs. To use these funds for municipal initiatives outside of BSD requests and approval is unacceptable, at odds with the city’s commitment to our schools, and abhorrent at a time when the BSD is struggling under burdens applied at the state and federal levels.
It is not in the city’s best interest to allow its schools to deteriorate or to stand by while a struggle with adequate funding contributes to a failure of our city to meet the needs of our students and a negative public perception of our city’s schools deters families from joining the Burlington community. In a healthy city, strong schools are the heart of the community and their success is vital to the economic and cultural vitality of the community at large. We all have a stake in this.
Under these circumstances, we expect the city to:
1. Actively support state legislative initiative H.795 which could ease AOE restrictions on the use of PILOT funds
2. Work with the school district to generate additional ways to use the PILOT money to ease the district’s financial burden without conflicting with the AOE requirements (athletics, social workers, interpreters, groundskeeping, free access to all Parks and Rec properties, etc.)
3. Lobby the AOE to apply flexibility to allow for the use of the PILOT funds.
4. At the very least, DO NOT spend these funds on municipal initiatives outside of BSD participation! Please be clear in your commitment to the Burlington School District, its students, and its mission!
Thank you,
The BSD Unified PTO:
Sue Chayer — C.P. Smith Elementary School PTO
Christina Vetter & Christina Erickson — Sustainability Academy PTO
Kath Laing — Champlain Elementary School PTO
Karen Ruben — C.P. Smith Elementary School PTO
Helen Rock — Hunt Middle School PTO
Vanessa Berman — Champlain Elementary School PTO
Kate Lasko — Integrated Arts Academy PTO
Beth Bahrenburg — C.P. Smith Elementary School PTO
Susan Munkres — Integrated Arts Academy PTO
Erika Housekeeper – Champlain Elementary School PTO
Tyler Doggett — Integrated Arts Academy and Edmunds Middle School PTOs
Jessica Blackman — Champlain Elementary School PTO
Clare Wool — Edmunds Middle School PTO
Sarah Kleinman — J.J. Flynn Elementary School PTO
Kerrie Mathes — Champlain Elementary School PTO
Christopher Hood — Burlington High School Seahorse Pride
Leigh Fisher — EES PTO
Katlyn Morris — Champlain Elementary School PTO
Jennifer Woods — Burlington High School Seahorse Pride co-chair
