Harwood budget sails to approval with news of staff cuts expected
March 5, 2025 | By Lisa ScagliottiVoters across the Harwood Unified Union School District on Town Meeting Day overwhelmingly approved the $49.2 million proposed school budget for the coming year, with more than 70% voting yes.
A second question on the ballot asking to add $500,000 of surplus funds from the 2023-24 school year’s budget into the district’s Maintenance Reserve fund for building upkeep and repairs won by an even wider margin with nearly 82% of the vote, 2,427 to 536.
Hover to see voter data. Source: HUUSD Election Results | Charts by Julia Bailey-Wells
The tallies were made at Harwood Union High School where elections workers from each of the district’s six communities take the school ballots voters marked during the day. Ballots are combined and then counted together for a single total. This year the district used two tabulator machines to process the ballots, rather than doing a hand count.
Hover to see budget data. Source: HUUSD Election Results | Chart by Julia Bailey-Wells
Historically, voters have supported the practice of setting aside for maintenance what amounts to a year-end surplus of unspent funds based largely on the difference between what the district budgets for special education services and what it ultimately spends. That category fluctuates greatly based on student needs and the student population. This latest transfer is the smallest amount the district has sought to add to the fund (see chart) at a time when maintenance needs are particularly high. Finance Manager Lisa Estler said the fund currently contains less than $2 million while building fixes and upgrades across the district total in the neighborhood of $20 million.
In 2024, the district held three votes before voters approved a $47.9 million budget for the current 2024-25 school year. It required school property tax increases ranging from 10.5% in Duxbury to 19.3% in Warren; Waterbury’s was around 14%.
The difference this year is that district leaders drafted a budget reflecting a bottom-line increase of 2.75% over the current year’s budget. Last year’s approved budget was an increase of 5.4% over the prior year.
Given some adjustments to the funding formula used to calculate the state and local shares of education funding, most district taxpayers will not see a school property tax increase this year based on information the school district has right now. Estler has cautioned in her budget presentations to date that not all of the elements of the funding formula are set yet. The critical “yield” piece from the state will be finalized later in the spring which may cause the current calculations to change.
But as it stands, school tax rates in five of the district’s towns are anticipated to drop for the coming fiscal year by 0.3% to 9%. Waterbury, Waitsfield and Warren’s rates are likely to fall by less than 1% — a welcome development after last year’s increases of 16-21%. Duxbury and Moretown are likely to see reductions right around 9% compared to last year’s jump of 12%.
As an example, a home with an assessed property value of $350,000, would see a reduction in its school tax bill this year of $38 in Waterbury, $419 in Moretown, and $651 in Warren, according to district figures.
Fayston is the outlier due to an extraordinary fluctuation in its grand list of property values. Estler has reviewed the details of this impact throughout her budget presentations including meeting directly with the Fayston Selectboard.
The HUUSD ballot has two questions.
After seeing school taxes increase 15% last year, Fayston property owners now are likely to see a tax increase of 10.5%. That $350,000 home in Fayston likely will see its school tax bill go up this year by $753, according to school data.
School officials were relieved to see the budget win approval on its first vote, 2,119 to 871, but the enthusiasm was tempered with some reservations about what’s still to come.
“I have been in communication with superintendents throughout the region and I am hearing similar reports regarding the successful adoption of school budgets,” Leichliter wrote to school staff after the vote Tuesday night. “While we are happy for this win, it still means that we are reducing positions in our school district and throughout public schools in Vermont, so it is not an overwhelming win in my opinion.”
Despite the smooth sailing at the ballot box though, Harwood’s budget contains tight limits on spending that will mean news soon of significant staffing cuts across the district. In order to keep the bottom-line budget increase under 3% this year, the administration and school board presented a spending plan that calls for fewer services than what are currently in place. A level-service budget would have cost just over $2 million more than what was proposed, Estler told the school board back in early January.
Hover to see budget data. Source: Town Clerks | Chart by Julia Bailey-Wells
To achieve that reduction, the 2025-26 budget must cut the equivalent of 16-20 full-time staff positions. Some will come from vacancies from resignations and retirements that will be left open, school officials said.
But after the district saw a wave of retirements last year, Superintendent Mike Leichliter has said he does not anticipate seeing many at the end of this school year. The result will be layoffs. Leichliter and Estler have said staffing cuts will include two nurses (going from 9 to 7 overall, with some schools no longer having a full-time nurse), some classroom teachers, administration and student support staff. School officials need to notify union leaders of their cuts by March 15 and individual employees affected by April 1.
In addition to personnel, some operations expenses were also targeted, the largest of which is a $325,000 savings from cutting summer school academies.
Now that the budget has been approved by the voters, school officials say they will finalize these details involving spending cuts but they also are still open to hearing from the community. The district has added a spot to its Budget section on its HUUSD.org website where anyone may submit a suggestion for a spending cut.
“We are open to all ideas,” Leichliter said. “Other reductions are possible. If for example, someone resigns in a position that we can eliminate, we may decide to not reduce another position. In all likelihood, if someone comes forth with a really good idea, we may move ahead with both.”
Looking ahead beyond the school district or even Vermont, the superintendent’s message following the vote results included a call for support for public education in general. News from Washington D.C. from the new administration is building for potential major cuts to the federal Department of Education or even its elimination altogether.
“While we can move on with plans for next year, please remember that the right of our students to a free public education is central to our commitment to our beliefs as educators. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant in the days ahead!” he wrote.
Three directors short
Following the election, the Harwood school board will hold its organizational meeting to choose officers. The board meets on March 12 at 6 p.m. But when it meets, it will be short by three school directors and a fourth seat could still be undecided.
In Tuesday’s election, eight of the board’s 14 seats were on ballots around the district. Five of the positions had candidates listed, three had no candidates file to run and now remain vacant — one in Duxbury and two in Waterbury. Three incumbents were elected on Tuedsay. Board Chair Ashley Woods in Warren and Bobbi Rood from Waitsfield were re-elected to their second three-year terms. In Waterbury, Corey Hackett who was appointed to the board last April was elected to serve the remaining two years of a term.
Waterbury’s three other school board positions also were on the ballot. Robert Dabrowski ran unopposed for a three-year term. Positions with one and two years remaining attracted no candidates.
Likewise in Duxbury, its one position on the ballot did not have a candidate.
In Fayston, two candidates were interested in the one school board opening and the election result was extremely close. Rebecca Baruzzi received 109 votes and Molly Bagnato received 103. Town Clerk Madison Vasseur said the ballots were counted several times to check the result. Under Vermont state law, a candidate for local office may request a recount within 10 days after an election. As of Thursday morning, no recount request had been made, Vasseur said.
The school board can appoint people to the vacancies and appointments would run for just one year, ending on Town Meeting Day in 2026. Anyone interested in serving for the next year should contact Woods with a letter of interest. The school board’s practice is to forward information on potential appointees to the select boards in their community for the select board to interview candidates and recommend to the school board the appointees to represent their town. Then the school board takes action to make the appointments. In 2024 that process to fill three Waterbury seats took until mid-April.