Harwood asks voters for $51.9 million to run schools in FY26-27
February 11. 2026 | By Lisa Scagliotti Voters in the Harwood Unified Union School District are being asked to consider a $51.9 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year along with a $500,000 addition to the district’s maintenance reserve fund.
The budget proposal represents an increase of 5.44% over the current year’s spending plan that voters approved in 2025.
Budget information sessions by Zoom are being recorded and posted on the HUUSD YouTube page. See one from Feb. 4 with another set for Feb. 19.
The Harwood School Board asked the administration to present a budget that represents level services for the coming year. That means maintaining current programs, staffing, etc., adjusted for any enrollment changes and complying with state and federal requirements, as the district’s Finance Manager Lisa Estler explains.
Last year, voters approved a budget of $49,409,927 for the current 2025-26 school year’s operations. Early in the budget-drafting process, Estler calculated that offering the same level of service for the 2026-27 school year would cost $52,921,172.
That would have been an increase of 7.54% and – even more concerning – it would have exceeded the spending threshold set by the state.
That benchmark works out to be spending above 118% the statewide average per-pupil spending. This year, the state’s threshold is $16,470 per pupil. Districts that exceed that benchmark pay a penalty that results in a higher overall tax rate, something Harwood leaders were determined to avoid.
The reality that the school leaders faced was that replicating this year’s services for next school year came with a pricetag higher by some $3.1 million. That increase is driven largely by contractual wage increases for teachers and staff totaling $1.2 million, a special education increase of just over $1 million, a health insurance cost increase of just under $365,000, and operations and maintenance increases totaling $231,000.
The school board then directed Estler and the administrative team to revise their draft so that the bottom line would come in under the state penalty threshold and the overall increase would be more in line with increases from recent years, which have averaged just over 5% over the past four years.
The final budget draft that the school board voted unanimously to present to the voters ultimately meets those criteria. Voters will be asked to approve a budget of $51,884,847, which represents an increase of 5.44% over the budget in place today. The per-pupil spending calculation works out to $16,228.78, coming in under the state’s penalty threshold by $241.
In addition, voters will be asked to roll $500,000 in unspent funds from last school year into the district’s maintenance reserve account, which currently has a balance of about $2 million. This is the only addition to the reserve, and such annual increases don’t keep up with the district’s needs for building updates and maintenance. The district has a maintenance plan that maps out projects over several years, with each year’s list addressing the most pressing needs in each school facility. The current cumulative estimated cost of building improvements is $121 million, based on a detailed study done in 2025.
Cuts presented as ‘efficiencies’
In building the budget, the administration notes that 72% of Harwood’s annual costs come from staff wages and benefits, accounting for $38 million. Health insurance costs alone come in at nearly $6.4 million or about 12% of the overall budget, according to Estler’s budget presentation in a Zoom public information session on Feb. 4.
Over the past two years, budget cuts have trimmed the equivalent of 49 full-time jobs, including elementary language teachers and some nursing and library staff. Brookside Primary and Crossett Brook Middle schools reduced the number of classroom teachers in each grade and increased class sizes. Other cuts have come from transportation, operations and athletics areas of the budget.
Bringing the current proposed budget down under the state spending threshold and in line with recent increase trends meant finding cuts totaling $1,036,325.
In the budget presentation being shared in public information sessions ahead of Town Meeting Day, the bulk of those cuts come from:
$240,000 in cost reductions that don’t impact classroom operations such as the planned move of the district’s central office from leased space in Waitsfield to Harwood Union High School later this year.
$224,588 from a restructuring of the district’s preschool program in the valley schools that will consolidate pre-K classes to the Moretown and Warren schools in the fall.
$136,617 from eliminating a vacant administrative position at Harwood Union Middle/High School
$131,000 from delaying purchases to replace technology equipment
$124,000 from job vacancies that persist across the district
In addition, school leaders are eyeing the possibility of increasing the district’s state reimbursement for school meals by about $50,000 in the coming year by better communicating to students and parents how that cost-sharing works.
School breakfast and lunch are free to all students, with the district providing the meals and the state reimbursing the district for meals served. Estler has calculated that just having an additional 8-10 students per school receiving daily meals could boost the state’s funding for the program by $50,000.
The itemized list shared to date totals $936,325. That leaves just under $100,000 in reductions to still be named. The final item on the list calls for a reduction in athletics and student activities spending. School officials say they still need to work out the specifics of those cuts.
The district’s budget presentation acknowledges that the budget increase is greater than the consumer price index increase for the past year which is hovering around 3%. “Our budget is driven by fixed and mandated costs, such as health insurance, special education services, transportation, utilities and negotiated contracts, that have increased at rates well above CPI,” the presentation notes. “These costs make up the majority of our budget and we have limited or no discretion over them.”
The budget presentation goes into detail, showing increases in health care premiums and special education in particular. It also lists numerous examples of state and federally mandated programs that schools are required to provide without funding from state or federal governments to support those requirements.
Counting pupils by ‘weight’
One significant challenge early in the budget process was for school officials to dig into student enrollment data to be sure all of the district’s students are counted by the state and the appropriate weighting factors were applied. These details are critical given that the state measures a district’s spending based on weighted per-pupil costs.
In Harwood’s case, actual enrollment this year has dropped by 27 students from 1,814 in 2024-25 to 1,787 last October when enrollment reports are made to the state.
Yet in December, when the state shared its weighted enrollment counts, Harwood’s reflected a dramatic drop -- down by 147 students from the prior year.
That factor is a key piece of the complex state education funding calculation. And a shift that large would have a significant impact on the per-pupil spending arithmetic for the upcoming budget.
School finance staff and principals alike went to work, combing through enrollment information to be sure the state had an accurate count of actual students with the appropriate weighting categories applied to match individual circumstances for Harwood’s student population. Special weights are calculated to account for characteristics that make it more costly to educate students in various circumstances. For example, students who are English language learners receive an additional mathematical weight, as do students from low-income households and students in rural home settings.
This exercise played out across the state, with the Vermont Department of Education generating many revised student counts. By mid-January, Eslter reported to the board that she was satisfied that additional documentation from Harwood to the state had resulted in a truer weighted count in what was then the state’s 13th version of student population data. She said she agreed with a version that put Harwood’s weighted enrollment, based on a two-year average, down by just 34.67.
Costs to taxpayers
While voters may be interested to know what the school budget will pay for, they also are eager to know the impact it will have on their own finances, given that schools are largely funded through property taxes paid directly by homeowners and indirectly by renters.
School officials have calculated estimated taxpayer costs, which they expect will evolve in the weeks following the March 3 budget vote due to action in Montpelier by the state legislature and the governor. The final decision on how much the state will add to the education fund to offset education spending collected from property taxes will be made later this spring. Gov. Phil Scott’s current proposal would allocate around $100 million to the education fund. Increases in the state’s share result in lower property tax rates.
Ultimately, the answer to the taxpayer-impact question varies by town based on each town’s real estate values and how up-to-date the municipality’s property valuations are. The state applies a Common Level of Appraisal calculation that is intended to reflect how close a town’s appraised values reflect current market conditions. A town’s CLA value represents the percentage of fair market values its property valuations have. The state adds a CLA adjustment into the calculation for each city and town in Vermont.
Image from the Harwood budget slide presentation from Feb. 4 and for the Feb. 19 public information session.
Factoring in all of these variables, Estler has calculated estimated tax impacts per town in the Harwood district to support the $51.9 million proposed budget. (see chart)
Expected increases range from a low of 11-12% for Waterbury, Moretown and Warren, to 14-173% for Duxbury, Waitsfield and Fayston, based on Eslter’s most recent estimates in the Feb. 4 slide presentation.
The chart also calculates the cost increase per $100,000 in property value per town. For example, the increase in a tax bill on a home in Waterbury valued at $300,000 would be $723.
School officials point out that more than half of the district’s taxpayers qualify for property tax relief through a state program that takes income into account, meaning they do not pay the full amount of their calculated tax bill.
Upcoming budget meetings, voting
The Harwood School Board hosted an online information session regarding the proposed 2026-27 budget on Feb. 4 and has a second one scheduled for Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. Find the Feb. 4 recording here and the link to join the Feb. 19 session here.
The district’s annual meeting will also include a budget presentation. That will be held on March 2 at 6 p.m. at Harwood and via Zoom. Only those who attend in person may vote on business items at that meeting.
On March 3, Town Meeeting Day, voters in each town will have the chance to vote onthe 2026-27 budget articles by paper ballot. Early/absentee voting will be available starting Feb. 10 from each town clerk’s office.
See the Town Meeting Day warning with Match 2-3 details and sample ballot here.
The school district’s annual report, which includes the proposed 2026-27 budget will be posted on the HUUSD website by Feb. 13. Paper copies may be requested by calling 802-583-7953 and picked up at the district central office in Waitsfield or at any district school.