Vermont residents approved the vast majority of school district budgets in Town Meeting Day votes, rejecting only those in Barre and Alburgh, according to results compiled by the Vermont Superintendents Association.
As of Wednesday morning, results were not yet available for seven other school budgets.
Jeffrey Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, believed the widespread acceptance of budgets showed that voters understood that school expenditures were necessary — even amid fast-growing school spending across the state.
“I would speculate voter approval of these budgets, despite the fact that there’s a 7.7% increase statewide, is an acknowledgment that folks are hard at work trying to do the right thing for kids and communities and taxpayers,” Francis said, referencing the estimated increase in spending for the 2023-24 school year.
This year, a total of 120 school district budgets were up for a vote, 99 of which took place Tuesday. Residents voted on nine budgets prior to Town Meeting Day, and 12 are scheduled to be decided at a later date.
As of Wednesday morning, the superintendents’ organization did not yet have results for the North Country Union High School and Junior High School districts, the Lake Region Union High School district, and SAU 70, a district shared between Vermont and New Hampshire.
Budget results were not yet available for the Central Vermont Career Center, the River Valley Tech Center and Southwest Tech.
In Barre, the failed $54 million budget had drawn widespread criticism that it spent too little on students. That budget, which included a 1.5% increase in spending from the current year, would have left Barre with one of the lowest levels of spending per student in the state.
On Tuesday, voters turned down that budget by a margin of roughly three to two, requiring the school board to come up with a new proposal.
In Alburgh, voters rejected a roughly $7.3 million school budget by only ten votes, according to results posted on the town’s website. The budget failed 162-172.
The district’s superintendent and school board chair did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
