Vermont school districts struggled to pass budgets in 2024 | Local News

NORTHWEST VERMONT — In 2024, education funding was on Vermonters’ minds across the state, as the formula was reworked time and time again, and as taxes crept up substantially all the while. 

Legislators and state officials have stated they will be on a quest in 2025 to improve how education is funded in Vermont. Already, the state’s first estimate on next year’s education property tax forecasts a 5.9% year-over-year increase.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed concern about the current formula’s complexity and costliness. 

Meanwhile, school boards are knee deep in building their fiscal year 2026 budgets and unable to provide clarity to taxpayers around precisely how voting to approve their district’s budget will impact their pocketbooks. 

A year of failed budgets 

2024’s education budget struggles kicked off when the Department of Taxes estimated a whopping 18.5% increase in property taxes. Districts across the state attributed the rise to the increased needs of their students following the COVID-19 pandemic, rising health insurance rates and the need to build-in competitive salaries to retain employees. 

In Colchester, the district budget passed with a 9.59% increase from its previous year budget — largely on account of the need to hire an educator for the district’s students with disabilities, a paraeducator to handle a large caseload and a multi-language educator to support an influx of newcomers to the district lacking English proficiency. 

Statewide, school enrollments are trending in a downward direction, but enrollment is slowly but steadily growing in Colchester. 

In the Milton Town School District for example, health insurance costs increased by 16.4%. The proposed budget failed to pass on Town Meeting Day, and again on its first revote, ultimately passing on a third vote in June, with a $753,590 cut from the initial proposal to cut down on taxpayer burden. 

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MTSD had to reduce administrative positions, individual contracts, support staff and teachers to secure funding for this school year. The day of the final vote, the school community rallied together in support of its student needs. 

Georgia’s school district also had to reduce its proposed budget, by nearly half a million dollars, to win in a third budget revote this year, following a failed firsttwo attempts. The changes resulted in losing the library assistant, one of five custodians and two classroom paraeducators. 

The changes also resulted in the board being unable to add any money to its capital reserve fund at all this fiscal year. The fund is used for building maintenance and repairs. 

Initially, the district had hoped to add $200,000 to this fund, as it’s currently depleted from a recently necessitated upgrade of Georgia Elementary and Middle School’s boiler system. The school had to close for a day last winter when there was no heat. 

School board and political leaders are uneasy about the limited ability of the district to respond in the event of an infrastructure emergency now, but given the impact to the quality of students’ education if other parts of the budget were to go, the move was deemed the lesser of two evils. 

The Missisquoi Valley School District needed three tries too, to get a budget passed. 

The Maple Run Unified School District budget passed on its first go, but only by a narrow margin. 

The Essex Westford School District also failed to pass its first budget this year. In a $4.5 million reduction from the figure initially proposed, the district eliminated three office administrator and staff positions — a loss of nearly one-third of the district’s full-time administrative employment. 

Also included in EWSD’s cuts were a 6% shrinkage of operations staff, a cut-down on coaches, transportation service reductions and the postponing of a few planned capital projects, including two stormwater projects and some roofing maintenance. 

Continuing to defer maintenance

In an effort to keep schools adequately staffed for a quality education whilst simultaneously satisfying taxpayers, deferring maintenance has gone on for years in numerous districts statewide. In many districts, deferred maintenance reached a point requiring critical attention. 

Colchester’s school board developed a $115 million bond proposal this summer to complete what it deems essential, overdue facility improvements at all five of its schools, including mechanical and building infrastructure repairs to electric, heating and ventilation systems, as well as some capacity improvements to learning spaces necessitated by current and projected enrollment levels. Voters passed the bond by a narrow margin in November. 

Administrators say the need was dire. In some of the worst cases in CSD, classrooms have been flooding on a regular basis, makeshift educational areas have been carved out of storage closets and tiny vestibules between underutilized side doors, and in warmer months, lessons were being administered in classrooms in up to 90-degree weather without substantial cooling. 

Colchester is not alone in its need to address deferred maintenance — and Vermont has not had any statewide aid for construction since 2007.

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Next door in Milton, getting needed school renovations off the ground has been a harder lift. The district scrapped plans for a bond to build a new elementary and middle school after taxpayers baulked at the price tag. 

After the start of this school year was delayed due to mold issues, the district is now looking to make repairs to the building instead of fully replacing it. 

The Essex Westford School District is facing upwards of $42 million in renovations over the next 10 years, according to a recent assessment of its facilities. 

Looking ahead

While all parties hope to revisit the education funding formula and make it sustainable for everyone, Republican state legislators are particularly keen on trimming education spending. 

The GOP toppled the longstanding Democratic supermajority in the Vermont House and Senate this fall, with most of the party’s candidates promising “affordability” to Vermonters. 

When asked in interviews last month what pieces of the pie they would look to pare down first in an effort to relieve the taxpayer, state Republican Representatives recently elected to the Senate, Chris Mattos of Milton and Pat Brennan of Colchester, both named education first and foremost. 

“I don’t know how people survive, and actually a lot of them don’t,” Brennan said. “A lot of people are packing their bags and moving out of state. So that’s where we start: We need a total restructuring of how we fund education.” 

Brennan said he looks forward to considering the recommendations of studies on education funding, and to considering Gov. Phil Scott’s ideas on the matter moving forward. 

Mattos wants more predictability in how a proposed budget will impact the town’s local taxpayer. 

When asked about funding deferred maintenance — a problem that has gone on for decades in many districts due to the costly nature of making essential facility repairs — Mattos pointed to the number of added hires that have been made in many districts, and the growing size of school staffs despite declining student enrollments as a place to look to cut down on expenditures, freeing up funds to address deferred maintenance. 

Mattos also acknowledged that private health insurance rates have risen drastically. 

“It’s going to take a lot of money to do all those things, and we need to work within the budget of the state to be able to get there — and not raise new taxes, not raise new fees,” he said.