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Reporting-based commentary challenges students to engage with other perspectives before sharing their own views. This week we’re asking students to consider the questions their schools will bring to voters on Town Meeting Day.
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“We’ve got to minimize”: Budgets and hard choices at South Burlington High School
by Hannah Cunningham, Rice Memorial High School
When Adele Bounds attended South Burlington High School she often rushed around looking for a functioning bathroom before class.
“A lot of the bathroom doors were not on,” she said. “There weren’t locks on the bathroom stalls, the sinks would always trickle and the [bathroom] overall was just a mess.”
Bounds said the deteriorating building was one of the reasons she left South Burlington High School.
In 2020, the South Burlington school board presented a $209.6 million bond that would have covered the rebuilding of both the middle school and high school. The board also reported that the school was 4% above capacity projected to increase to 18% over by 2030. The bond would accommodate this growth.
At Town Meeting Day that year the bond was overwhelmingly rejected by 6,514 votes to 1,712.
David Young, South Burlington’s former superintendent, spent years working on the bond project. He said that because the bond did not pass, the district used funding intended for student programs to fix issues with the building.
“We have to do two million dollars worth of work on the [construction] side,” Young explained, which means “something that benefits students– could be an academic program, something that we just recently put in– we’ve got to minimize.”
South Burlington High School Principal Patrick Burke agreed. “Every dollar you spend on fixing stuff in a public school is one less dollar you’re spending on kids,” he said.
Burke said South Burlington’s science classrooms are out of compliance with the American Disabilities Act but been allowed because the rules were implemented after the school was built.
Burke also said the school lacks sprinklers, that the students are eating in hallways, and the school needs more space for students.
Students report problems with the heating and ventilation. Lila Boyd, a current sophomore, said the school’s fluctuating temperatures make it difficult to focus. “You’re either freezing or you’re overheating,” she said.
Junior Izzy Laramee agreed. “The majority of the day you’re super hot or cold,” she said. She also described water leaking from the roof.“One German room last year couldn’t be used basically the whole year because it was constantly leaking,” she said.
Vermont is the only state in the Northeast that lacks an active program to fund school construction. In 2007, the General Assembly suspended state aid for school construction. South Burlington is just one of the schools that have been impacted.
Senator Martine Gulick, a representative from Chittenden County, said funding was originally halted because the state government was overwhelmed with projects. “I think the legislature was really fearful of what was happening financially in the state,” she said, “and they thought that it was a pot of money that could be either canceled or paused so that other expenditures could be taken care of at that time.”
Without state aid, the burden of the proposed South Burlington bond was heavy for taxpayers: an additional $1,500 annual taxes per year for a home valued at $350,000.
Principal Burke recognized the financial impact on voters. “It was too much, and that’s democracy,” he said. “And in the end, I respect that.”
Although many voters did not feel the need for improvements justified the price tag, some parents thought the bond was necessary.
“It’s a shame that it failed,” said Stephanie Dorgan, a parent and substitute teacher. “If we want to continue as a community in South Burlington, we need to encourage a strong school system and attract young families.”
