The Vermont education funding formula has multiple factors at work, with one key piece being the school district’s tax rate. For the current 2023-24 school budget year, that rate is $1.44 which was actually 5% lower than 2023’s district tax rate.
Board members were pleased to see that the revised budget would have a district tax rate of $1.47 which represents an increase of just 2.1%. Estler notes that the latest version of the state’s formula which was revised in February contains a “discount” factor of 9 cents that’s applied to reach the $1.47 rate. That discount was created to cushion the impact of the state’s new pupil weighting system that gives more weight when calculating enrollment to students in special circumstances such as living in poverty and being English language learners. Harwood lost taxing capacity when those changes outlined in the new Act 127 law were implemented. The discount will gradually be reduced each year for the next several years, Eslter noted, saying 2029 would pose a financial "cliff."
One other measure trending in a positive direction, Eslter noted, was per-pupil spending, although more work is needed here. Under the new state formula, the average per-pupil spending for next year across the state is $13,396. Harwood’s spending per pupil would be $15,626 under the revised budget proposal, up 3.4% from this year. The failed budget had an increase of more than 8%, Estler noted. Still, Estler called attention to that measure saying the district should aim to bring that cost down to the statewide average or less, calling that anticipated exercise “a tall task.”
As every property owner knows, the district tax rate is not a final number. The funding formula applies the Common Level of Appraisal that is based on each town’s real estate property values calculated against fair market values. Estler’s presentation breaks down the bottom-line tax increases for each of the Harwood district’s communities with examples applying it to four sample property values per town.
The revised budget would trigger school property tax increases ranging from 13.4% in Duxbury to 22.4% in Warren; Waterbury’s increase would be 17%. Put in dollars, those increases would add $254 for every $100,000 of assessed property value in Duxbury, $439 for every $100,000 in Warren, and $324 for every $100,000 of property value in Waterbury.
For example, a home valued at $350,000 would see an increase of $889 in Duxbury, $1,537 in Warren and $1,133 in Waterbury.
For comparison, the budget that voters rejected on March 5 called for tax increases ranging from 20% to 30%.
Waterbury missing representation
The budget discussion this week included just nine members of the 14-member Harwood board and only one-quarter of Waterbury’s representation.
Three of the four positions representing Waterbury are currently vacant. Two expired and had no candidates run in the March election and member Jake Pitman resigned last week after accepting the head coaching position for the Harwood Track and Field team. Waterbury’s remaining member, Victoria Taravella, was in attendance on Wednesday. Two other members, Ben Clark of Moretown and J.B. Weir of Waitsfield, were absent.
As the largest community in the district, Waterbury’s board seats also carry the greatest weight with each member’s votes counting as 9.75% of the board’s total. By comparison, Fayston members’ votes count as 5% and Duxbury’s as 5.2%. The three empty Waterbury positions account for 29.25% of the total.
The Waterbury Select Board on Monday is scheduled to interview four applicants for the Wasterbury seats on the school board: Elizabeth Brown, Dan Gwaltney, Corey Hackett and Dan Roscioli. The school district’s procedure for filling vacancies between elections includes involving the local select board to recommend appointees.
The school board’s agenda for the April 3 meeting, however, does not include filling the Waterbury seats for new members to participate in the decisions to establish the new budget and date for the revote. That would mean a maximum of 11 members would decide those details.
Board leaders in advertising for volunteers for the openings said they would appoint the new members at their April 10 regular meeting. Reached Friday, chair Woods said the April 3 meeting was already warned and it does not include an agenda item to fill the Waterbury seats.
Appointees would serve until the March 2025 election.
One month until a vote
Looking ahead, board members briefly discussed next steps leading up to a budget revote. Several said they would form a publicity committee to plan outreach to voters by all board members. Suggestions included social media posts, letters to the editor, making flyers and visiting busy locations such as grocery stores in the communities to talk with people. They talked about explaining the new version of the budget and the cuts made to reduce the spending increase from nearly 12% to 7.6%.
Moretown’s new member Steve Rosenberg who was elected on March 5 said voters will want a clear message to understand how their taxes will be affected. Vice Chair Cindy Senning urged the group to communicate “what we have lost” from the failed proposal to the new version. And Waitsfield’s Bobbi Rood emphasized the board’s plan to form a finance committee to find efficiencies for the future. It’s important, Rood said, that people know “we are going to do a deeper dive.”
Woods said she is pleased to see the drop in spending on the revised plan. But a key part of communicating with voters, she said, will be to cut through confusion surrounding the Vermont school funding formula this year to demonstrate what increases are driven by the district’s budget, “and what is coming from the state—what we have control over and what we don’t,” she said. “I think we need to make that point crystal clear.”
The April 3 school board meeting is scheduled to take place via Zoom and the district’s YouTube channel where recordings of meetings are available. The Zoom link is on the meeting agenda.
