Champlain Valley School District budget passes on second try

Voters in the Champlain Valley Tuesday approved by 1,400 votes the school district’s second go at a school budget for next year.

The $101.8 million budget passed 4,358-2,947 by residents throughout member towns in the district, including Hinesburg, Shelburne, Charlotte and Williston.

It brings a sigh of relief for administrators, school board members, teachers, faculty and students throughout the district’s five schools. Faced with a third go at passing a budget, cuts could have been steep, and officials estimated they would have had to find more than $500,000 — likely in faculty and programs — to cut on top of the $4 million already stripped from the first budget.

“The Champlain Valley School District Board of Directors is deeply grateful to our community for coming together after several months of uncertainty to pass the 2024-2025 budget,” school board Chair Meghan Metzler said. “Thank you to everyone who came together to support our schools over the past several weeks. This approved budget allows the district to move forward and provide opportunities for growth and belonging to all of our students.”

Still, the implications of the passed budget are not exactly a net positive for the district. The budget calls for the reduction of 42 full-time positions, including seven central administration positions, 15 student support paraprofessional positions and three paraprofessional interventionist positions previously funded by federal grants.

Nearly 15 teaching positions will be cut throughout the district, while several programs will see reductions in classes and support, including music, theater, French, Latin, business, library services and other programs.

Tax rate hikes for residents, meanwhile, remain in the double digits. Charlotte residents will see a 17 percent rate hike, Hinesburg an 18 percent hike and Shelburne a 14 percent hike.

Those rates may change, however, given the uncertainty with the state education fund’s overall yield formula.

But the rates are a decrease from projected hikes under the first budget, which was shot down by nearly 2,000 votes. Tax rate hikes with that budget were well over 18 percent for each of the member towns.

The district’s first budget hoped to keep some support staff that were previously paid for via federal pandemic funds — the district is seeing a rise in behavioral referrals among K-8 students — but those hopes were dashed after the Town Meeting Day vote.

Teachers and board members had rallied in recent weeks for a yes vote on the budget, arguing any further cuts to staff and programs would have been ruinous for the educational experience at their schools.

Joined by board members and other faculty, teachers in the weeks leading up to the second vote rallied and held signs outside of the district’s schools before and after their school days. Students at Champlain Valley Union High School, meanwhile, staged a full walkout Monday to support the budget.

“All of these students came out to support their teachers and support their education, because if this next budget doesn’t pass, so many different opportunities and classes are going to be gone from CVU,” the student body co-president, Nikhal Blasius, told NBC5 on Monday.

While the budget’s passing brings some semblance of stability for the next school year, Vermont’s education funding system is due for a turbulent transition period as legislators debate whether and how to change the state’s funding mechanism for its public schools.

The Champlain Valley district was deeply disadvantaged under the most recent iteration of Act 127, which adjusted the statewide public weighting system, thus taking money and taxing capacity away from the district.

The school’s administration had prepared for this when the law passed in 2022 and had a five-year plan under the provisions of the new law. But legislators in February — in the 11th hour of budget season — pulled the rug out from underneath the district, forcing district officials to scramble and decide whether to revise their budget or keep with their original plan.

The district kept their original budget up for a vote, and they were among more than a third of districts throughout the state whose first budget plans were voted down. It reflects a growing concern in the state around education spending, and the hikes in property tax rates needed to pay for it.

“We look forward to continuing the important strategic work ahead of us as we navigate expected statewide changes to the education system,” Metzler said.