Despite more than a year of political focus on the cost of Vermont’s education system, voters across the state by and large backed their local school budgets on Town Meeting Day.
According to preliminary results compiled by the Vermont Superintendents Association, nine school district budgets out of more than 100 reporting results had failed as of Wednesday morning. Those included Alburgh, Fairfax, Georgia, Ludlow-Mount Holly, Paine Mountain, Slate Valley, Springfield, Stamford and Wolcott. The single-digit tally is a stark reversal from last year, when a historic proportion of budgets were rejected.
Amid work in Montpelier to reimagine Vermont’s public education system, and following a year of taxpayer anger over school spending, it was unclear how voters would view their local school budgets Tuesday.
Chelsea Myers, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, expressed relief Wednesday morning that so many communities supported their school budgets, describing the results as “kind of (reverting) back to normal.”
“We would be having a very different conversation if the results resembled last year,” she said in a press briefing.
In 2024, schools faced skyrocketing costs, bringing budgets to residents that in many cases increased property taxes by double-digits. In turn, voters rejected nearly one in three of those budgets, a historic proportion given the typical broad support for school spending plans.
Following the initial tumult, many districts took three or even four attempts to pass budgets.
This year, state analysts predict property taxes will rise on average just under 6% — less than half of 2024’s increase. To keep taxes from surging again, many districts planned to cut staff.
In Montpelier, Gov. Phil Scott has used the Legislative session to outline his “education transformation proposal,” a plan that would consolidate Vermont’s more than 100 school districts into just five and radically reimagine how the state provides funding for education.
The plan, he argues, would save millions. But to achieve those savings, small schools would likely close, and class sizes would grow.
On Town Meeting Day, voters arrived at the polls with school budgets top of mind.
Residents in Newport voted by Australian ballot on their school budgets.
Standing on Main Street after leaving the polls, Norma Baraw, 66, said she had voted in favor of all of them.
Noting that she had also approved last year’s budget, Baraw said she usually trusted the decisions local boards of education made in crafting their proposal each fiscal year.
“It takes a lot of money to run schools, it really does,” said Baraw.
In Craftsbury, where residents were about to hold a discussion on the almost $6,000,000 budget, Rudy Chase said he was eager to hear what fellow residents had to say about ongoing changes in Vermont’s education system.
“I’m very anxious to see what happens with the discussion, especially given talks about budget cuts and consolidation at the state level,” Chase said. “I’m pretty concerned about all of that.”
On Wednesday, Sue Ceglowski, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, described the Town Meeting Day results as a show of confidence from Vermonters. That backing will give policymakers “the time to make any changes in a thoughtful way,” she said.
While most school districts vote on budgets on Town Meeting Day, some will bring budgets to voters in the coming weeks. About a dozen districts that voted Tuesday had not yet reported election results as of 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to the superintendents association.
Habib Sabet contributed reporting.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Despite a tumultuous moment for education, the vast majority of school budgets pass.