SHOREHAM — Shoreham residents on Town Meeting Day will participate in a governance unification vote for the Addison Central Supervisory Union, and help determine the composition of a 13-member board that would oversee all public schools in the new unified district. All schools in the unified Addison Central School District would be covered by a single budget. Nick Causton is the lone candidate for Shoreham’s two-year term on the new board. The new board will be elected at-large, meaning residents of all seven ACSU towns will vote on candidates for all 13 positions. The future of this new board is contingent on ACSU voters approving unification of their school governance, which will be a separate referendum on the March 1 ballot.
Residents will be asked to support a 2016-2017 town highway budget of $681,890, up from the $653,323 in spending that was approved for this year. The general fund proposal comes in at $287,479, up slightly from the $281,009 that was OK’d for this year.
Shoreham school directors are proposing a spending plan of $1,567,125, representing a 4.4-percent increase compared to this year. But Shoreham’s homestead education tax rate is expected to go down. As the Addison Independent went to press, the Vermont Agency of Education was still awaiting clarification from legislators on how Act 46 will affect the “property dollar equivalent yield” used to calculate the homestead education property tax rates in all local school districts.
School directors are also seeking to use surplus funds to replace the school boilers and purchase a mobile computer lab.
Other articles on Shoreham’s town meeting warning seek:
• $13,150 from the town’s general fund balance to put into a “reserve fund for fire/rescue vehicles and equipment.”
• $20,000 from the town’s general fund balance to put into a “building and grounds repair reserve fund.”
• $20,000 from the 2015 highway fund balance to put into the “highway equipment reserve fund.”
• A combined total of $22,295 for various charities and nonprofit services that benefit Shoreham residents.
There are no contested elections on the Shoreham ballot this year. Running unopposed are Will Stevens, town moderator, one year; Julie Ortuno, town clerk, one year; Kathleen Brisson, town treasurer, one year; Steven Goodrich, selectman, three years; Karen Shackett and Will Stevens, each for two years, on the Shoreham selectboard; Tanya Scuteri and Lance Wood, for terms of three years and two years, respectively, on the Shoreham School Board; and Laura Siebecker, library trustee, five years.
Shoreham’s annual town meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 29, at 6 p.m. in the Shoreham Elementary auditorium. Australian ballot voting will take place the next day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., in the town offices.