Updated at 8:57 p.m.
After a school board race in which a proposed equity policy divided the candidates, Milton voters reelected Jeremy Metcalf and Melinda Young — supporters of the policy — as school trustees Tuesday, according to preliminary results from the town clerk’s office.
Allison Duquette and Nicholas Smith, who were both endorsed by “Vermont Parents Against Critical Theory,” or VPACT, had challenged the incumbents for three- and one-year terms, respectively.
Metcalf, the board’s current chair, defeated Duquette 1,024-949. Young bested Smith, 1,045-935.
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Young said the results revealed a much closer race than she had expected. She plans to be more involved in work on the equity policy in her upcoming term, she said, adding that her other priorities are boosting student outcomes in reading and math as well as improving student behavior.
Young was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board in October. Tuesday’s victory is her first election to a full term.
“I just want to listen to the kids and speak for them,” Young said.
Metcalf declined to comment on his win Tuesday evening.
This year’s election continues a string of defeats among VPACT-endorsed school board candidates. Last year, Milton voters rejected three school board candidates endorsed by the organization: Nichole Delong, Scott O’Brien and Brock Rouse.
The draft equity policy, dated November 2022, includes a list of words and definitions, actions related to access and inclusion, curriculum and instruction, data and assessment, and discipline.
Among various changes, the draft policy states the school district will do more to include families “from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds,” reduce educational barriers caused by poverty and accommodate students’ religious traditions.
It also states that educational materials should follow superintendent-issued guidance that limits misinformation and hate speech. The policy suggests “Holocaust Denial, Election-related Conspiracy Theories, or speech that targets protected classes,” as content that could be limited under such guidance.
The policy directs the superintendent to create a procedure that “prevent(s) claims of “neutrality” to be invoked for purposes of providing a platform of equal standing to hateful, racist, sexist, antisemitic, intolerant, and otherwise violent views against minoritized or historically oppressed groups and identities when accompanying topics of clear moral weight.”
VPACT, in a December statement, argued the draft policy violated First Amendment rights and the Civil Rights Act: “It will be the cancer that rapidly pollutes the minds of our kids and grooms them into social justice warriors.”
The draft policy is still awaiting approval from the school board.
In other ballot items, Milton voters elected former state representative Leland Morgan and reelected current chair Darren Adams to one-year terms on the selectboard. Adams and Morgan beat out incumbent John FitzGerald and Richard Saunders of the town’s Economic Development Commission.
Selectboard incumbent Brenda Steady also won reelection to a three-year term without opposition.
Voters approved a $9.7 million budget, which is a half-million-dollar increase from the current budget.
They also approved a 5.2% increase in the Milton Town School District budget, raising school spending to $34.6 million for the next fiscal year. Fifty-three percent of voters voted in support of the school budget, while 46% voted to reject it.
Next year’s budget cuts the high school’s driver’s education budget by more than half. Under this budget, three of nine school positions currently funded by federal Covid-19 relief funding would be transferred to the general fund.
The budget for fiscal year 2024 also increases the equalized per-pupil spending by 11.6%, raising it to $19,480 per pupil. Across the district, next year’s budget would raise spending on school administrators and principals between 7% and 10% year-over-year, according to budget documents.
