Maureen Belaski leads kindergardeners in an exercise at Porters Point School in Colchester on Monday, October 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Amy Minor, the superintendent of the Colchester School District, remembers speaking to parents during family conferences at the Mallet’s Bay School last year when water started leaking from the ceiling.
It was, unfortunately, not an uncommon occurrence at the district’s five schools, she said. Facilities managers are often patching up water leaks, dealing with general wear and tear, or fixing other issues that pop up at the Porter Point, Mallet’s Bay and Colchester Middle schools — all of which have not been significantly renovated for decades.
Last year an aging valve in one of the school’s ventilator systems ruptured, flooding the library and shutting down the room for days.
Porter’s Point School and Union Memorial School were both built in the 1950s, and their mechanical systems have outlived their useful life. Colchester Middle School has yet to be significantly renovated since the building was constructed in the 1960s.
In short, Colchester’s schools are in bad shape. The district is hoping to change that with a ballot item coming before residents on Nov. 5. It will ask voters to consider a $115 million bond that would invest money into major infrastructure improvements at all five of its schools over several years.
It’s the first time the district has asked voters to support a facilities upgrade of this magnitude.
“Our maintenance team has done a good job of trying to stretch the life of all of these major mechanical systems,” Minor said, “but at some point you have to make the investment to fully upgrade windows, roofs, insulation — that’s kind of where our facilities are at.”
Amy Minor, superintendent of the Colchester School District, gives a tour of Porters Point School in Colchester on Monday, October 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
If the bond passes, the district would replace HVAC, electrical and lighting systems at Porters Point, Colchester Middle School, Union Memorial schools and install a centralized air conditioning system.
The funding would also be used to make the schools ADA compliant, and create dedicated spaces for special education, intervention and support staff who currently work in hallways, subdivided offices in classrooms, or other “nooks and crannies,” Minor said. It would also allow the district to move its preschool program from the Mallet’s Bay School into both the Porter’s Point and Union Memorial schools.
“A middle school that was built in 1968 and has had no major renovations or changes is in need, not just of that infrastructure repair, but also bringing the facility up to what is needed to best educate the students in our community and to serve those students, given what is expected of us in education today,” said Lindsey Cox, the district’s school board chair.
Mallet’s Bay and Colchester High School, meanwhile, would also be queued up for renovations. The high school, the newest of the district’s five buildings, would get a new roof, while the Mallet’s Bay School’s lighting system and HVAC system would be revamped.
The district has held public meetings to answer residents’ questions about the bond. Most of those who have attended have expressed support for the need for renovations, Cox said.
But even supportive residents are wary of the economic impact, noting that affordability remains an issue in town.
“We have a lot of folks… just like the rest of the state, they’re feeling the most recent change in the education funding formula in their current tax bills,” Cox said in an interview. “Most of what we’re hearing is, ‘Yes, we are supportive. We believe that work that needs to be done… and we have concern for the economic impact.’”
‘This work has to happen one way or another’
The district’s November ballot item has been a long time coming.
Work on the long-term facilities plan started in earnest in 2013, according to Cox. In 2020, the school board moved to place the bond measure up for a vote, but the effort was put on pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Students at Porters Point School in Colchester use the cafeteria space as a gymnasium on Monday, October 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
The need has only grown in the interim. The district is beginning to see a slow but steady increase in enrollment — a good problem to have, but that adds urgency to the infrastructure woes, district officials said.
Colchester’s student population had, since 2009, remained steady at around 2,100, but for the first time this year, it crested over 2,200, according to district data. Projections show the district will have 2,300 students by 2030.
Over the last decade, Colchester district officials often weighed whether to wait and see if state aid for school construction would return. Vermont once contributed roughly 30% toward school construction projects, but suspended the program in 2007, leaving districts on their own to pay for maintenance and renovations.
Laptops charge in a hallway at Porters Point School in Colchester on Monday, October 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Deferred maintenance needs have mounted in the meantime — an Agency of Education report estimated that schools statewide will have at least $6.3 billion in school construction needs over the next 21 years.
Minor said the needs in Colchester are too great to wait for a legislative task force, which is considering funding options for a statewide school construction program.
“Superintendents and school boards across the state have been hopeful since 2007 that school construction aid would come back,” Minor said. “I think our board is still hopeful that it will come back, but because of the state of the buildings, we felt like we couldn’t wait, because the longer we wait, the more expensive these projects are going to be in the long run for taxpayers.”
If the bond passes, residents wouldn’t feel the impact in their tax bill until 2027. That payment would increase over four years and peak in 2031 — when residents with a home assessed at $350,000 would pay $733 more in school taxes for the year, or $61 more a month — before decreasing.
The playground at Porters Point School in Colchester on Monday, October 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Whether or not residents have an appetite for that remains unclear. Some elected officials in town have voiced support for the district ahead of the bond vote, including Colchester Selectboard Chair Pam Loranger, who this month added a letter of support onto the selectboard’s agenda — applauding the “effort and thoughtful preparation of the $115M bond request now before Colchester voters.” The agenda item was never seconded, however, and was never taken up at the meeting.
This isn’t the first time school districts have put forth similar infrastructure bonds, and many have failed to garner voter support.
Earlier this year, voters shot down a $99 million proposal to build a new middle and high school in Woodstock. Last year, Stowe voters rejected a $39 million school bond that would have funded a comprehensive overhaul of its middle and high school campus. And South Burlington voters, in 2020, resoundingly rejected a $209.6 million ballot measure to rebuild the city’s middle and high school.
Porters Point School in Colchester on Monday, October 21. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Minor remains positive that residents will approve the measure. She pointed to data showing the Colchester School District is the second lowest spending district in Chittenden County on a per-pupil spending basis.
But regardless of if the bond passes or fails, “this work has to happen one way or another,” Cox said.
“We have to bring our schools up to code. We need to create safe environments. We need more space for students who are entering our district and to serve the students that we have who have ever increasing needs,” Cox said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester School District asks voters to approve $115M bond to modernize its aging schools.