At the polls on Town Meeting Day, Vermont voters will likely encounter school budgets that are higher than last year’s — in many cases, significantly so.
On the whole, state education spending is projected to increase 7.7% from the current year, the Agency of Education said, an increase that comes amid smoldering inflation and a tight labor market.
That increase is less than state officials projected last year. In the Department of Taxes’ “December 1 Letter,” an annual document forecasting education finances for the upcoming year, Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio projected an 8.5% increase in education funding.
“We … know that continued inflationary pressures, policy initiatives such as changes to the pupil weighting formula, and capital maintenance and remediation costs, will continue to create cost pressures for the Education Fund,” Bolio wrote, referring to a new law updating the state’s school funding model.
But Brad James, the Vermont Agency of Education’s education finance director, said this week that projected spending across the state was about $13 million below what was expected at the end of last year.
“People have worked hard, apparently,” James told the Vermont House Committee on Ways and Means Tuesday.
Still, the increase is projected to be the fastest growth in education spending since at least 2018, according to the Dec. 1 letter.
In an email to VTDigger, James pointed to a number of factors affecting school districts’ budgets.
“Special ed costs and needs have gone up, as have salaries and benefits, along with health insurance overall,” James said. “Many districts are also finding staff at all levels difficult to hire. And then inflation sits behind everything and eats money up.”
Despite multiple requests from VTDigger, state education officials did not make James available for an interview. Nor did an Agency of Education spokesperson respond to multiple requests for comment or answer questions about school budget data.
Barre’s an exception
One notable exception to the trend of fast-growing budgets is the Barre Unified Union School District, where a proposed budget has stoked controversy because many believe it is too small. Barre’s school board is proposing a $53.9 million budget for the upcoming school year, a 1.5% increase from the past school year.
With that budget, property tax rates in Barre City would increase roughly 2%, while tax rates in Barre Town would drop about 1%.
That budget would leave the district with one of the lowest per-pupil spending levels in the state, and has drawn criticism from Barre residents — and the school board chair — who say it would underfund key educational services.
School administrators are still determining what exactly would have to be cut to meet the budget’s requirements. But if passed, the budget would likely force the district to eliminate multiple jobs and trim school programs and transportation, Barre Superintendent Chris Hennessey said in an interview.
The controversy has divided the town, Hennessey said.
“It’s a pretty clear line in Barre, unfortunately,” he said. “Like a lot of elections are, right? It’s kind of like what team you’re on.”
Budgets on the rise
In some school districts, spending is expected to rise faster than in the state as a whole.
In Winooski, voters will cast ballots on a roughly $25.5 million school budget, a 20% increase from current levels. That increase would push property tax rates up by an estimated 9.7%, according to the district budget. If approved, the increase would hike the property tax on a $200,000 home by $380 for the year, according to the district’s calculations.
The Winooski budget included the first $3 million payment on the district’s bond that financed a $55 million school renovation — “the most significant contributor” to the budget increase, Superintendent Sean McMannon said in an email.
In the district’s annual report, Winooski School Board chair Allison Burlock said costs were also being driven up by “operating and maintaining a building that has doubled in size, and increases in basic salaries and benefits due to inflation.”
The district is also picking up the bill for two teaching jobs that were previously funded with federal money, Burlock said.
Debt payments are also weighing down the Fairfax School District budget, which is slated to increase about 12.4% from the current year. That will lead to a roughly 7% increase in property taxes, according to the district, which would make for a $211 yearly tax increase on a $300,000 home.
“I can pretty much sum it up in one word or two: ‘debt services,’” Scott Mitchell, the chair of the Fairfax School Board, said in an interview.
Last year, the district passed a $36.4 million bond for renovations at Bellows Free Academy Fairfax. Roughly 10% of the proposed 2023-24 budget will go toward payment on that debt, Mitchell said.
“That’s really where this increase is coming in,” he said.
In the Addison Northwest School District, voters will weigh in on a proposed $25.3 million budget — up roughly 13.4% from the current year. Property tax rate increases will vary from town to town in the district, based on different common levels of appraisal.
In an email, Addison Northwest Superintendent Sheila Soule pointed to a number of pressures driving up the budget. Inflation has pushed prices higher, she said, and district officials are putting money toward addressing students’ mental health needs.
The district is also proposing pay raises to stay competitive amid widespread staffing shortages, Soule said.
“This is an essential investment to keep employee turnover from impacting our schools — that kind of churn really slows progress and impacts student learning,” she said in an email.