Amid voters’ criticism over transparency and salary raises, the fate of this year’s Slate Valley Unified Union School District budget on Town Meeting Day hangs in the balance.
An online petition launched two weeks ago by a Slate Valley parent Michael Doran Jr. called for the resignation of school board members who voted earlier this month in favor of giving Superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell a 4% pay raise. The petition, which also calls for Olsen-Farrell to resign, has garnered 266 signatures as of Feb. 25.
“Over the last year, there’s been a huge disapproval of (the superintendent) and her performance, and a huge disapproval of the school board members for not listening to community members,” Doran said in an interview.
In an email sent to VTDigger, Olsen-Farrell acknowledged the concerns voiced by voters, but said that the school board’s decision to raise administrators’ salaries was guided by regional and state benchmarks.
“For those who signed the petition or have concerns, I am open to having a conversation to address them,” Olsen-Farrell said in the emailed statement. “It is my sincere hope that this singular issue does not influence the outcome of the budget.”
The school budget
Slate Valley, which includes the towns of Castleton, Fair Haven, West Haven, Benson, Hubberton, and Orwell, was among a historic number of districts whose school budgets were struck down by voters last Town Meeting Day. Slate Valley needed five more attempts over several months to pass last year’s budget.
This year’s proposed school budget calls for $32 million, a 5.21% overall increase.
School Board Chair Pati Beaumont said she believes the school budget is defendable as the increase will help fund medical insurance, behavioral support specialists in elementary schools, a new bus transportation contract, and building and grounds maintenance that had been previously deferred.
Based on preliminary estimated homestead tax rate data from the state tax commissioner’s office, Beaumont said the towns of Fair Haven, West Haven, Hubbardton and Orwell would see lower taxes rates while Castleton and Benson would see a slight increase under the proposed school budget.
In an emailed statement, Beaumont said that Olsen-Farrell did not request the 4% raise. She explained that the board finance committee voted on the pay increase for the superintendent and 12 other non-union administrators, with eleven board members in favor, one against and one abstaining.
Should the budget pass, Olsen-Farrell’s salary would increase by about $7,000, to approximately $170,000 per year.
Beaumont also shared Olsen-Farrell’s recent evaluation results — based on six different surveys sent to residents — which showed that the superintendent’s effectiveness ranked high in most categories including her relationship with the school board.
But, in the superintendent evaluation of community relations which had the largest number of responses, many people expressed dissatisfaction with superintendent Brooke Olsen-Farrell’s communication, accessibility and approachability.
Beaumont said some of the frustrations relate to the board rather than the superintendent, and that the board ultimately reviews the superintendent based on her progress toward her established goals, such as teacher and student retention.
“Some of the feedback offers valuable insights that the superintendent can use to enhance her work. We recognize that some comments on the community survey were negative. We take all concerns raised by community members seriously,” Beaumont said in the emailed statement.
Salary concerns
The Slate Valley district is “not a very wealthy area,” Doran said. Especially after the negative community feedback the superintendent has received of late, the proposed superintendent’s salary seems unfair to many in the region, he said.
Olsen-Farrell’s proposed salary is comparable to other superintendents in southwestern Vermont, Beaumont said. Olsen-Farrell serves as president-elect of the Vermont Superintendent Association and is in her eighth year as a superintendent, which is more experience than any superintendent in the region, she added.
“The claim that she makes too much is not based on comparing her salary to her peers and what they do,” Beaumont said.
While the petition signatures — 266 as of Tuesday — amount to only a single digit percentage of the number of registered voters in the district, Doran said it shows that there are many people who feel unheard by the district’s leadership.
Doran said that when he and his wife attended board meetings to inform themselves on board decisions and advocate against the termination of the Benson pre-K program that their child benefited from, he felt their concerns were disregarded.
“We went to board meetings, and the board didn’t really care what we had to say,” said Doran. “They cry that the public’s not educated, but when the public goes to educate themselves, they completely shut anybody down.”
School board member Curtis Hier said the decision to terminate the Benson pre-K program is just one of many choices the superintendent and school board made without considering community input, such as moving to proficiency-based grading and building a new middle school.
Hier has voiced transparency concerns in the past, suing the district to release restraint and seclusion documents, though the Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of the district in January because student records are exempt under the state’s public records law.
Hier said he voted against the school budget, and wants the public to be more involved in the budget decision making process before Town Meeting Day.
Beaumont said that there has been extensive deliberation over the decision to shut down the pre-K program, consolidate the middle school and switch to proficiency-based grading. Leadership, she said, requires making difficult choices.
Beaumont said she hopes the proposed budget will pass, but thinks that reducing the superintendent’s salary is not a solution for passing the budget.
Slate Valley school district parent and Orwell resident Joanna Peckham, at a school meeting on Feb. 10, said she had positive and timely communications with the superintendent. Peckham urged people to look at the “bigger picture,” explaining the pay raise controversy could cost the district if voters decide to vote against the budget.
“This year’s school budget needs to pass on the first vote. We can’t afford to be irresponsible and respond emotionally to personal vendettas,” Peckham said at the meeting. “The recommended increase for the superintendent is minimal, and if we as a community do not pass the budget the first time, the money spent on each revote will easily exceed her modest increase.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Slate Valley school budget runs into headwinds over pay raise for superintendent .