Dear Editor,
As a former school district board member for 15 years, I know budgeting always comes with difficult choices — particularly when making cuts.
This year, the Mountain Views Supervisory Union (MVSU) board proposed $2.5 million in cuts — no small feat, especially because insurance costs and contractual obligations to teachers and staff rose by double digits again.
So, it’s not surprising that they may have cut too deep.
Cutting arts and language programs proved widely unpopular, and the board voted on Monday to save all united arts programs from the chopping block. That’s good.
The task of district board members is to put a budget in front of the town’s people that’s best for the students. Cutting programming, including high school Latin, which 50 students have elected to take —nearly 12% of the high school population (she must be a great teacher!) — is not in the students’ best interest.
We must preserve educational opportunities and look to the future, positioning Woodstock to be invested in as one of the “newer and fewer” hub middle/high schools in the state.
We can’t do this by focusing on cuts. Instead of being scared of the penalty phase, let’s focus on tax rates.
If we keep all united arts, Killington will see a flat tax rate. Why would we cut an additional $450,000 in programming?
The UA programs back in the administration still have made $2 million in cuts, which got us to a flat tax rate (the state average is 5.9%). That’s impressive.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen 20%-30% increases yearly.
A flat tax rate? Let’s celebrate!
I also think the state Legislature will get the tax rate from 5.9% to 0% — which would mean we would all see more significant savings, possibly 6-7% off the current rates.
I’ve gone to three meetings during this budget process; I asked (as did others) for the dollar amount that put the arts programming back into the budget.
To his credit, Ben Ford, the finance committee chair, did just that. He gave the board five scenarios at the most recent meeting, Monday, Dec. 16.
In doing this, the finance group listened to the community.
Then, on Dec. 16, with this information, the board passed the motion to save all United Arts from budget cuts as it should have.
In this day and age, if the tax rate stays the same or goes down, why wouldn’t you vote ‘yes’?
No further cuts are needed. We can and should preserve the educational opportunities in our schools.
Let’s get through this year with a flat (possibly a 6% decrease) in our tax rates. I’ll be voting ‘yes’ on the budget this year for the first time in two years.
I’ve always been in favor of the educational side. And on the building side, let the Legislature figure out school building plans. I really hope that Woodstock can be a hub with a bigger building that can serve our kids even better. Let’s set ourselves up to make that case. We need the best educational opportunities available to do that.
Jim Haff, Killington
