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The South Burlington School Board has delayed a revote on a school budget for next year amid concerns about the coronavirus after voters rejected the original budget proposal on Town Meeting Day.
The board voted in a special meeting Monday to delay the budget vote while schools are closed due to the coronavirus. The board is now targeting an early May budget vote.
Schools throughout the state closed Wednesday after Gov. Phil Scott order to shutter until at least April 6 to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. The state’s official total of confirmed cases is 22 as of Thursday with two deaths reported.
Voters rejected the district’s original $55.8 million Town Meeting Day budget proposal 4,711-3561, a margin of 57% to 43%. That budget would have been a 9.56% increase per pupil for the next academic year.
South Burlington voters also resoundingly rejected a $209.6 million proposal to rebuild the city’s middle and high school on Town Meeting Day in a vote of 6,514 to 1,712.
The board had set an April 2 date for a vote on a revised budget.
Bridget Burkhardt, the clerk of the school board, said the April 2 election date would have required the board come up with a finalized budget by Wednesday. The board decided that amid the COVID-19 pandemic, delaying the election was the best choice.
“The main concern was making sure that the process was very transparent, and that community members had a chance to weigh in on whatever the board moved forward and put on the ballot,” she said.
At a meeting last week, the board asked Superintendent David Young to come back with additional suggestions of cuts from a $55.5 million revised budget proposal. That proposal was a $345,923 reduction from the budget proposed on Town Meeting Day.
Those reductions were largely driven by three staff retirements and the elimination of one full-time campus safety position.
Burkhardt said in the scramble to respond to upcoming school closures due to the coronavirus, the superintendent did not have the time to draft a proposal of additional cuts for the board to consider.
Burkhardt said the board was also concerned about public access to their conversation about any budget proposals during the time of social distancing during the pandemic.
At the board’s Monday meeting, the district’s legal counsel Joe McNeil said the board does have the authority to move the revote past the 30 days specified in the city charter.
“We think under these circumstances, there is a flexibility available to the board to consider a later date outside the closure and containment area,” McNeil said.
The city charter states that if voters do not approve the municipal or school budget, the city council or school board “may submit a budget with or without change at a special meeting to be held within 30 days.” McNeil said the use of the word “may” allows the district flexibility to extend the time.
McNeil said the district checked in with the Vermont Secretary of State office, which agreed the district could have additional flexibility during the pandemic.
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the school board chair, said during the meeting that there were some ramifications of not having an approved budget. For example, she said, there are concerns about the notification date for potential reduction in force notifications to teachers.
Burkhardt said if South Burlington voters don’t approve a budget, the district needs to act as if it has the same amount of funding as the previous year until a budget is approved. This would lead the district to have to alert teachers of layoffs, she said.
“We would have to make some cuts, and likely that would mean we would have to cut some headcount,” Burkhardt said.
The South Burlington Educators Association agreed to an additional 30-day extension for potential reduction in force notifications to the district’s teaching staff. The new deadline is May 2 to the union and May 15 for the individual teacher.
Young said during the meeting that if the district faced additional delays without a budget, teachers without seniority might leave the district amid concerns that they could lose their jobs.
“That then has major implications on the refill of those positions on those that may not be eliminated, so it creates a lot of turmoil in the organization,” he said.
Burkhardt said that if the district can get voters to support a budget in early May, district operations would not be affected. However, if there is no budget by May, between 20 and 25 teachers would likely receive notice that their contracts were not being renewed, she said.
