On the third try, voters in South Burlington have finally greenlit the city’s school budget. According to results reported by the city clerk late Tuesday evening, 3,883 residents voted for the district’s $52.5 million spending plan while 3,387 voted no.
In March, the electorate overwhelmingly rejected a $209 million bond to rebuild the city’s middle and high school, and at the same time soundly nixed the district’s initial $55.8 million budget proposal, with 57% of the electorate voting against the spending plan. That budget would have led to a projected 11.2% tax rate increase.
The board in May then put forward a $53.7 million budget, which voters rejected by an even wider margin – 64.5% voted no while 35.5% voted yes.
To arrive at Tuesday’s whittled-down spending plan, South Burlington school officials say they slashed athletics, student activities, Advanced Placement classes, math and literacy coaching and cut positions in human resources, transportation, IT, development, facilities and security. Administrators and non-union staff have taken a salary freeze and the district has reduced the number of new teachers it planned to hire.
“I think we’ve made cuts that are going to impact us for years,” school board clerk Bridget Burkhardt told VTDigger last week. “It’s basically going to be a rebuild.”
South Burlington was one of four school districts with budgets on the ballot on primary day, according to a tally by the Vermont School Boards Association. Voters also weighed in on school spending plans in the Slate Valley, Rochester-Stockbridge, and Granville-Hancock districts.
In Slate Valley, which was also trying for a third time to pass a budget, the district’s $26.4 million budget just barely eked by with a margin of 16 votes. According to results reported by Superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell, 1,324 voted yes and 1,308 voted no. The unified district straddles Rutland and Addison counties and serves Castleton, Fair Haven, Benson, Orwell, Hubbardton and West Haven.
“Certainly I’m relieved but it was a very slim margin. I know that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us as we enter the FY22 budget cycle,” Olsen-Farrell wrote in an email.
The all-choice district of Granville-Hancock also passed its budget Tuesday on a first vote, according to school board chair Stacey Peters.
Voters also greenlighted the Rochester-Stockbridge school budget, 262 yes, 211 no. Rochester voters approved the spending plan 175-107; Stockbridge voters turned down the budget, with 87 voting yes, 104 no.
