School board asks voters to approve $42.6 million budget, using surplus for maintenance
Jan. 29, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti The Harwood Unified Union School District School Board this week finalized the budget to put on the Town Meeting Day ballot and other election-related details.
Voters will find two finance questions on the March 1 ballot: a proposed budget for fiscal year 2023 of $42,655,858 and a question to put all of the FY2021 surplus into the maintenance reserve fund.
The budget reflects no major changes to programming or staffing for the next school year. And the exact impact on property taxes won’t be known until after the March vote as factors to be determined by the state legislature will need to be considered.
Early estimates so far indicate that changes to property taxes across the district could range from a 4-cent drop in Fayston to a 5-cent increase in Warren. Waterbury’s estimate in that calculation is a 1-cent increase and Duxbury a 3-cent increase. These values are per $100 of assessed property value which would mean a 1-cent increase would add $30 on a tax bill for a property assessed at $300,000.
School district officials caution, however, that their estimates are conservative and adjustments anticipated by the legislature may result in smaller increases.
The school board met Wednesday to sign off on the final version of the budget that will be broken down in the district’s annual report. Twelve of the board’s 14 members were on hand at the meeting where the $42.65 million spending plan was approved on a voice vote. Waterbury member Scott Culver and Fayston member Theresa Membrino were absent.
The budget reflects an increase of 5.6% over the $40.39 million voters approved in 2021. That works out to $20,238 per pupil, an increase of 7% from this year.
Finance Manager Michelle Baker explained the difference in the increases: Expenses are growing at a greater degree than revenue, and the two-year pupil count has dropped slightly, “so the cost per equalized pupil is greater than the budget expenditure increase.”
The board in its early discussions considered how much of the $1,524,424 surplus to put into the maintenance fund. State law calls for a fund balance to be used as revenue unless voters approve another use. The Harwood district has consistently applied surplus funds to maintenance in recent years.
Last year voters approved splitting a $2.2 million surplus from 2020 three ways with $1 million put into maintenance, $600,000 used as revenue for the 2022 budget and the remaining $615,000 set aside as a “rainy day fund” for either operations or maintenance.
Maintenance and renovation needs loom large in the district, particularly for Harwood Union Middle and High School.
In November voters overwhelmingly rejected a nearly $60 million construction bond for a major overhaul to Harwood which was built and opened in the mid-1960s. It also would have expanded Crossett Brook Middle School to accommodate all of the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders there, allowing Harwood to be used only as a high school.
Following the vote, the school board declined to put together a follow-up proposal for the March ballot. With seven of the board’s 14 seats up for election on Town Meeting Day and a new superintendent on the horizon by mid-summer, they opted to hold off knowing new leaders would be in place soon to move any multi-year plans forward.
The board this week finalized other details pertaining to the Town Meeting Day votes:
It scheduled its annual meeting and informational hearing for Monday, Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. That meeting will be held in a hybrid format with school board members at Harwood High School and the public encouraged to join via Zoom.
Housekeeping items for the annual meeting will be addressed on Feb. 28 such as authorizing hiring an accountant for the district, borrowing in anticipation of taxes and setting compensation for school board members. Those attending would also vote to elect a moderator, clerk and treasurer for the coming year. The remaining items decided using paper ballots will be put to voters on the March 1 ballot.
It confirmed that it will mail a postcard to all registered voters in the district’s six communities notifying voters of election day and encouraging them to vote early due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a desire not to have gatherings at polling places. Voters may contact town clerks to request a ballot by mail or visit their town offices before March 1 to vote early. On March 1, polling places will be open in all of the communities from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Board member Lisa Mason noted that Moretown officials have decided to mail municipal ballots to all active registered voters in their community. Voters will need to request school ballots from the town clerk if they want to vote early. School ballots will also be available on election day at the Moretown Elementary School polling place. Town Clerk Cherilyn Brown said that ballots will not be automatically mailed to any voter who has received a letter saying their registration is challenged. Those individuals should contact the town clerk’s office if they would like ballots mailed to them.
The school board also approved asking voters to consider a question to create a new school district to run the Central Vermont Career Center. Voters in the six school districts that send students to the center in Barre will vote on the measure which will create a new school board and a process for voters in all of the communities to approve the center’s budget. If the measure passes, the new school board will include a member of the HUUSD board as a representative and an at-large elected representative from one of the Harwood district communities.
Given the ongoing pandemic and recent legislation that relaxed some election requirements, the board opted to forego the customary practice of comingling ballots from all of the communities to count them together after the polls close. This will allow town election officials to count school ballots in their voting machines, tabulate results and send the totals to the school district clerk. It will avoid having election officials gather at the high school to count school ballots. This was the practice followed in 2021 as well. The method is likely to be faster although it will result in vote counts by town in addition to combined district totals.
One final election note on Wednesday was a brief discussion of school board candidates in short supply following Monday’s filing deadline for candidates to be on the March 1 ballot. Only three candidates filed for the seven seats voters will be asked to decide. Waterbury board member Kelley Hackett noted that interested individuals may still run as write-in candidates. Seats representing Waterbury, Duxbury, Warren and Fayston attracted no candidates by the Jan. 24 deadline. Hackett also has a letter in the Opinion section.