By Lola Duffort/VTDigger
With the start of a new fiscal year, July 1, some school districts are still without voter approved budgets.
While most school districts in Vermont bring their budgets to the electorate on Town Meeting Day in early March, when the pandemic swept the state just weeks later and put the state on lockdown, 19 districts didn’t yet have a spending plan in place, and elections were put on pause for nearly two months.
Budget votes in the Covid-19 era have been a mixed bag so far.
In the Slate Valley Unified School District, voters once again rejected the school budget last month as did Rochester-Stockbridge (see related stories on page 1-2 of this edition.)
Current law allows a school district without a voter-approved spending plan in place by July 1 – the start of the new fiscal year – to borrow up to 87% of its prior year’s budget. Lawmakers were at work earlier this spring on legislation to provide a more generous default, but talks between the House and Senate reached an impasse. Legislators could return to the subject in August, when they are expected to reconvene.
“I think it’s important to let the local process move forward without intervention. Whether there is intervention needed in the future is something we will address as the remaining information comes forward,” said House Education committee chair Rep. Kate Webb, D-Shelburne.
In the Rivendell Interstate School District, which serves four Upper Valley towns in Vermont and New Hampshire, voters initially struck down the schools’ budget, with 349 voting yes and 484 voting no— a record turnout. But then voters approved the budget in a revote, June 30, 583 to 538— surpassing the previous record for turnout. The district reported that 13 people walked in to vote, 20 dropped off their ballots and 1109 voted by mail.
The Essex-Westford School District, where every voter was sent a ballot by mail, the electorate approved a school spending plan on June 2 by overwhelming margins – 3,124 to 1,844. Turnout was also exceptionally high compared to last year, when a total of just 934 people cast their ballots.
Voters in South Burlington, meanwhile, soundly rejected the school district’s budget 2,924 to 1,613 in a special election held in late May.
