What's going on with the SBSD budget?

Cuts that have already been made include the reduction of staff in certain SBHS departments (including Social Studies and Math) that will lead to certain classes being larger or offered to fewer students. Staff, including teachers from the elementary schools will also be cut, again leading to larger classes. Student support will also plummet, with reductions in interventionists, para professionals, and the PK-12 Special Education Coordinator position; as well as the information technology educators who enable the functioning of platforms such as Schoology. The elimination of the SBHS student engagement coordinator will get rid of Activity Block--the weekly period that allows all students to take part in almost 50 different extracurricular activities.

Infrastructure and maintenance is another consideration -- as Mr. Everitt points out, “One of the things that’s the first to go, almost every time we have a budget issue, is money to maintain the buildings.” This problem is statewide: by one estimate, Vermont needs to spend at least $6 billion in needed educational building maintenance over the next 21 years.

The impact of these cuts has led to much anxiety among SBHS students -- several of whom have gotten involved to advocate that voters pass SBSD’s third school budget: speaking at board meetings, publishing a letter detailing the impacts they would feel should the budget fail to pass, and planning a walkout the day before the vote. It also worries teachers -- in some cases, forcing them to consider stepping away from SBSD or even leaving public education altogether.

If South Burlington voters do not approve a budget by July 1st, the district will be forced to borrow up to 87% of last year’s budget, with taxpayers paying interest on those loans. With nearly 40 full-time equivalent positions being cut, several programs would be in danger of being reduced or eliminated. These include Big Picture, AP classes, and the German and Japanese programs at SBHS; as well as music classes for 6th and 7th graders at FHTMS and all sports and extracurriculars. “These programs are a jewel of SBHS…part of what makes South Burlington so unique and desirable for families to live in,” SBHS students explained in their letter.

Cuts to teachers at all schools as well as support staff will lead to larger class sizes and less individual support. FHTMS would be left with only one school nurse, which puts them out of compliance with the state required ratio of 500 students to 1 nurse. More information on these reductions and eliminations can be found in this document, compiled by the SBEA.

Why is it so hard to pass a budget?

With all the educational benefits of each budget, it seems impossible that anyone could vote against it. But it’s not a disregard for education, as Mr. Everitt emphasizes: it’s the taxes. The first budget’s failure was not a surprise to most, considering its 23.25% increase on property taxes.

This increase, frustrating for any taxpayer and particularly challenging for residents facing lower or fixed incomes, was not uncommon in Vermont. The 20% average rise in taxes led voters to strike down 29 school districts’ budgets on Town Meeting Day (March 5), almost a third of those up for vote that day.

A plethora of issues are behind the continually rising cost of education. Some are easier to understand. Others are incredibly complicated. “It’s been a huge challenge for me to distill these extremely complicated, confusing, and ever-changing factors into concepts and language that the average resident can even begin to understand,” says Mr. Jarvis. Below are just some of those factors.

HEALTH

Many students are in need of improved mental health and other support, requiring additional funding, and paying staff has become more costly with the rising price of the health care benefits included in their salaries. Additionally, as federal relief funding provided during COVID-19 continues to phase out, schools are left with successful programs they created using that funding -- programs that they now must pay for by other means.

EQUITY

Ensuring equity without causing unintended harm is another key concern of Vermont legislature when it comes to school funding. In 2019, Vermont state legislature passed a law restructuring the way students were counted in determining school funding. This law, Act 127, changed pupil weighting regulations, on the grounds that “not every student costs the same to educate,” as Mr. Everitt puts it. Students from low-income households, those living in rural communities or attending small schools, English language learners, and older grades all “count” as more when tallying a school’s weighted total of students (which is a piece of the education funding equation), since it takes more resources to provide these students with the education and support they need and deserve. While a higher count of weighted pupils in a district (enabled if they have many students with higher weights) doesn’t mean the state gives them more money, it does still support them financially, allowing them to spend more on education for the same tax rate increase.

Though the law has an extremely valuable and essential premise, and it did lead to more money for school districts with higher proportions of these disadvantaged students, that money was still not enough for districts to effectively support them. Additionally, the change in pupil weighting would lead tax rates in some districts, including South Burlington, to spike even without an increase in their budget spending. This is not necessarily because they have fewer low-income and English language learners than other schools -- it can also be a result of other factors, such as the school’s location in a relatively urban area compared to the many rural-area schools across the state. According to Ms. Nichols, the adjustment of pupil weighting has led to the district receiving 20% less funding.

Though the law included a tax limit to soften this impact, that cap ultimately allowed some schools to spend unaffordable amounts, leading to its statewide repeal in late February 2024 -- just 12 days before Town Meeting Day (though districts were permitted to postpone their vote in light of the legislation change). In South Burlington, that change drove its tax increase from 18.26% to 23.25%.

CONSOLIDATION

Another conversation occurring among legislators and school staff alike is the question of school consolidation. Vermont’s level of education spending is quite high relative to other states’. But that doesn’t mean students enjoy premium luxuries or extra high-quality education. A significant reason for this heightened spending is the number of schools our state contains. Many of these schools are relatively small, but even the smallest still need “the custodians, the principal, the building, one of every kind of teacher you can think of,” explains Mr. Everitt.

As a result, many believe merging neighboring schools would allow a more efficient use of funds. It would also widen the range of opportunities available to students, as the larger the school, the easier it is to justify spending money on a particular program, like hiring a language teacher for elementary schoolers.

Legislators are considering the creation of incentives for this consolidation, perhaps offering additional infrastructure funding on the condition that schools merge. This change doesn’t only apply to tiny rural schools -- Mr. Everitt also points out that 5 of Chittenden County’s high schools--South Burlington, Winooski, Colchester, Burlington, and Essex--all stand within just a few miles of each other and could potentially be consolidated. And while these districts are big for Vermont, they’re still quite small nationwide: Champlain Valley School District, the largest in the state, has roughly 10% of the student population as a typical school in the U.S.

Still, consolidation isn’t easy--not only does it require a great deal of logistical work, the loss of an individual school can mean a lot to a town, thus being hard for them to accept. “A lot of [small] towns, all they have in them is their school,” explains Mr. Everitt, so it’s not just a facility but a part of the town’s identity.

What’s next?

The May 7th vote on the third school budget; for many SBSD administrators, staff, and students; will be a key turning point. Several of them are strongly advocating for it to pass. “If we can pass the budget on May 7, I think SB will have successfully bought ourselves about 8 months of time to figure out the next step,” says Mr. Everitt.

On a legislative level as well, efforts for a temporary solution will be pushed, with lawmakers searching for a way to reduce skyrocketing property taxes. But, of course, we need a long term solution in order to prevent the concern and anxiety around tax rates, educational programming, and student support services from returning year after year. This solution, according to Mr. Everitt and Mr. Jarvis, is a major balancing act between many priorities, such as adequate educational support and affordable property taxes. Simultaneously, policymakers on all levels have to balance between different adjustments to school funding: from changing the amount of money spent on education, to consolidating schools, to finding new sources of revenue.

This needs to happen not only on a statewide level, but also within South Burlington. Mr. Everitt reflects: “There’s going to be a big push for folks to wait to see what the legislature does, and I think that needs to be resisted…Instead we need to do a pretty significant amount of work with our South Burlington teaching community and larger community about what South Burlington education needs to look like.”

Why should I get involved?

Only 18% of registered voters voted for or against the budget on April 4th -- that means over 13,000 voters chose not to vote. With the status of the school budget, administrators, staff, and students alike are urging SB residents to get involved: to inform themselves on the budget, to share their voices, to vote. “I want to see a higher level of community engagement by a better-informed citizenry, [and] I want to see less school-related disinformation being propagated on social media,” said Mr. Jarvis when I asked him what he hoped for in the coming weeks.

Early voting has risen greatly day-to-day, as encouraged and tracked by Principal Burke’s videos--from an average of 50 votes per day over its first three days to 120 votes on Thursday! It’s hoped that the turnout will continue to increase both during the rest of early voting and at the polls on May 7th.

The value of participation goes for students too. Mr. Everitt emphasized the importance of students sharing their voices with the school board and broader community--not just when budgets fail but in general--whose future contributions are what’s ultimately at stake with the education funding issue.