School budgets take a hit statewide

Voters struck down close to a third of school budgets across Vermont on Tuesday, the highest proportion in at least a decade, according to the Vermont Superintendents Association. 

In all school districts, boards struggled with the double-digit rising costs of health insurance for their employees, general inflation and the loss of federal money started during the pandemic.

Voters in the Mount Abraham Unified School District on Town Meeting Day narrowly defeated the proposed district budget for the 2024-2025 academic year and opposed by a much larger margin the purchase of the building that houses the district’s central offi … (read more)

In commingled balloting in the five Addison Northwest School District communities, the ANWSD board’s Fiscal Year 2024-2025 (FY25) budget proposal of $28,232,078 was defeated on Tuesday, 1,282-1,012, or about 56-44%.

In what’s shaping up to be a season of “nay” in the area, the proposed FY25 budget for the Otter Valley Unified Union School District was rejected by district voters on Tuesday, with 891 votes (40%) in favor and 1,325 votes (60%) against.

Voters in the Addison Central School District communities of Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge went to the polls on Tuesday to approve a proposed FY’25 preK-12 spending plan of $50.6 million by a convincing 2,081-1, … (read more)

Despite usually approving school budgets without question, I must admit that, when I walked into the voting booth this Tuesday, my pen briefly hovered over the “no” oval for the 2025 ACSD budget.

Lincoln School District officials have begun their search for a new administrator to lead the Lincoln Community School, as longtime principal Tory Riley will step down from the position at the end of this school year. 

Vergennes Union Elementary School physical education teacher Robyn Newton has been nominated for National Life Group’s 2023-24 LifeChanger of the Year award.

Michelle Steele returned to her MUHS French classroom last month after having spent the previous four months on a Fulbright sabbatical in Morocco. While there, she interviewed 30 teachers in eight schools stretching from Casablanca to Guelmim, studying wa … (read more)

While lawmakers in Montpelier last week debated last-minute changes in the state’s school-funding laws, the Addison Northwest School Board met on Feb. 12 and decided not to make further adjustments to the $28,232,078 spending plan it’ll put before voters … (read more)

The Mount Abraham Unified School District board this past Thursday, Feb. 8, got a look at how anticipated changes to Vermont’s new education funding law, Act 127, are expected to affect school tax rates in the district’s four member towns. 

Vermont’s very well-intentioned attempt to make education funding more equitable has created confusion for school boards, school officials and taxpayers.

After reviewing the impacts of the new Act 127 transition mechanism, our review confirms that we properly developed a budget that considered the negative impact of Act 127 while at the same time responding to the other FY25 financial challenges.

State rules governing public water systems could drown a plan to establish a new childcare center in a portion of Salisbury’s former elementary school building.