In 2025, the Addison Central School District Board continued to work with Superintendent Baker and her team to operationalize our three foundational goals from the five-year Strategic Plan. Deliberately rooted in equity, they focus on students’ access to high-quality learning opportunities, sense of belonging, and academic success. To support the successful implementation of the plan, we have worked to align our board policies, practices, and decision-making, including our Community Engagement and Vision policy, to help us partner well with our communities, and our District’s school assignment policy, which will provide caregivers with more flexibility regarding their child’s assigned elementary school.

On behalf of the Board, I would like to acknowledge the hard work and thoughtful discussions that made this equity-based budget a reality, thanks to the efforts of the District and building leaders, staff, and community members. I also want to acknowledge two particularly challenging decisions:

1) Supporting the Superintendent’s recommendation to place Ripton students into Salisbury Community School for the 2025-26 school year to ensure the integrity of their educational program. After additional input from district administration and the Ripton community, the Board decided to invoke Article 14 of the District Charter to place the decision of whether or not to close the Ripton Elementary School building before the ACSD voters. This vote is now presented to ACSD voters on Town Meeting on March 3rd.

2) Voting to move Shoreham students to Bridport Central School, beginning in the 2026-27 school year. This decision was informed by student outcome data across our elementary schools and input from District administrators, building principals, and staff on the strongest approaches for improving student outcomes. A joint Bridport and Shoreham community working group formed in the spring to explore a K-5 single-grade configuration model; feedback from this group and members of both the Bridport and Shoreham communities helped guide the Board’s decision.

The FY27 budget presented to the Board was developed with transparency and equity-based budgeting principles at the forefront, while continuing to support the Board’s strategic priorities. Knowing that healthcare and wage increases would again drive costs up, the Board directed the Superintendent to cap education spending increases at 3%. The Board agrees that the proposed budget provides an equitable distribution of resources to meet the needs and goals of every ACSD student.

It is with confidence and genuine commitment to our ACSD community that we present the FY27 budget to you for your support. Further information on the FY27 spending plan can be found at our ACSD website under the ACSD Budget Development tab www.acsdvt.org/district-link/budget-development. You are also encouraged to attend our Annual Meeting and Public Information Hearing, which will be held at the Middlebury Union High School on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.

Respectfully,

Barbara Wilson,  ACSD Board Chair, Shoreham