School board adds Waterbury members, preps for second budget vote
April 15, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti The Harwood Unified Union School Board appointed three new members last week to fill vacancies representing Waterbury as the board prepares for a second vote on a proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year.
The school board on Wednesday briefly met and heard from applicants Elizabeth Brown, Corey Hackett and Dan Roscioli who volunteered to serve until next March, filling three of Waterbury’s four seats on the school board. Two seats were up for election on Town Meeting Day last month without any candidates on the ballot and a third became open when board member Jake Pitman resigned recently to take a head coaching position for the Track and Field program at Harwood.
The Waterbury Select Board on April 1 interviewed the three as well as a fourth applicant, Dan Gwaltney, who expresssed interest in being appointed.
As is the school board’s process, the Select Board forwarded a recommendation to appoint Brown, Hackett and Roscioli. The Select Board encouraged Gwaltney to volunteer for other service opportunities in Waterbury.
While the Select Board conducted mini-interviews with each candidate, the School Board kept its process brief. Each candidate was invited to make a few remarks. Board members did not ask any questions. Their appointment was approved unanimously.
The new members were seated at the board table and included in an executive session regarding ongoing labor contract negotiations but they were not included in voting on any measures at the April 10 meeting. Their appointments are not official until they are sworn in by their town clerk. They should have that step completed in time for this week’s meeting on Wednesday, April 17, which was moved up to not conflict with school vacation next week.
The candidates reiterated some of the points they shared with the Select Board in their April 1 interviews.
Hackett said he felt a “strong sense of sadness seeing blank spaces on the ballot” in the March 5 election. “I thought for sure others would step up,” he said, adding that he was happy to see interest in the appointments now.
Brown, who has had a career in banking, financial management, and strategic planning said she hopes her expertise can be helpful at the district level but that she also has been motivated to get involved by tuning into the education funding debate at the state level. She said she hopes Harwood can continue to participate in that level of discussion as well in order to be involved with bigger-picture reforms to Vermont’s education funding policy.
Roscioli, a small business owner, said he doesn’t have answers to the challenges facing the district regarding budgets and financing, but he hopes he can help ask questions to help steer future decision-making. He also pointed to the need to keep voters and taxpayers informed so they have an understanding of what they are being asked to vote for.
“There’s a split right now in Waterbury,” Roscioli said. “I think it’s important to address. There are a number of people where it’s very black and white—either you have some who want to send a message to the state and they will reject any budget that’s put out right now, and then you have ones who support whatever budget is put out in the name of education. And I think there’s going to be a bridging piece that needs to happen, not just for this year, but for the next few years.”
School board terms are for three years but appointments made to fill vacancies in between elections run just until the next election. Next March, two of the just-filled seats will be on the ballot with two years remaining. Pitman had served one year of a three-year term, so that term will have one year remaining. And the fourth seat held by Victoria Taravella who was elected in 2022 will be up for election to a full three-year term.
Those openings will be in addition to four other seats coming up for election in 2025 representing Duxbury, Fayston, Waitsfield and Warren. Those seats currently are held by Life LeGeros, Danielle Dukette, Bobbi Rood and Ashley Woods respectively.
In addition to the appointments, the board last week reviewed a number of school district policies as part of its ongoing updates to policies.
The board also approved creating two new committees: a Finance Committee to begin looking at long-term financial planning for the school district and an Equity Committee. The Finance Committee so far consists of members from Fayston, Warren, Moretown and Waitsfield. The Equity Committee has a member each from Duxbury and Waterbury. Board Chair Ashley Woods suggested that a new member from Waterbury consider joining the Finance Committee at the board’s next meeting.
Vote on revised budget coming April 30
The School Board did not spend much time discussing the upcoming second vote on a budget proposal for the 2024-25 budget year. Voters on Town Meeting Day last month rejected a proposed $50.8 million budget that represented an increase of nearly 12% over the current year’s budget and would have triggered property tax increases ranging from 20% to 30% across the district.
The board on April 3 warned a new vote for Tuesday, April 30, by paper ballot on a revised proposal of $48.8 million. That represents an increase of 7.63% over this year’s $45.4 million budget. The board accepted an administration recommendation to trim $1.9 million from the original proposal That would come from eliminating a $1 million contribution to the district’s building maintenance reserve fund, cutting three full-time equivalent positions, leaving 20% of vacant positions open for a year and an additional list of one-time cuts to line items such as supplies, furniture and fixture replacement, professional training and development for staff, some travel costs and technology upgrades.
The revised budget leaves in place a transfer of $535,000 to the maintenance reserve funds that voters approved on Town Meeting Day. Those funds are from a surplus from the 2022-23 school year’s budget. The district typically applies any remaining fund balance from the prior year to maintenance with voter approval. School officials attempted to increase the allocation to the reserve fund for next year given the growing list of building improvements and repairs and the fund’s dwindling balance. The fund has less than $3 million currently and a four-year list of facility projects totaling nearly $19 million, according to administration officials.
So far, shool officials have estimated that increases in local property taxes to support the revised budget on the April 30 ballot will range from $254 in Duxbury to $439 in Warren for every $100,000 in assessed property value. Waterbury’s figure is pegged at $324. Those are increases ranging from 13.4% over this year’s tax rate for Duxbury taxpayers to 22.4% for Warren; Waterbury’s increase falls in between at 17%, according to district budget details.
Those are the best estimates put forth by Harwood officials given information regarding the state education funding formula when the revised budget was approved on April 10. Just last week, discussions in Montpelier between state lawmakers and officials in Gov. Phil Scott’s administration suggest further changes to education funding may be coming before the state legislature adjourns next month. State officials are looking for ways to address the impact of significant expected property tax increases for the fiscal year 2025 school budgets given the number of budgets failing so far to win voter approval across the state. Harwood’s was one of 30 budgets across Vermont to fail at the ballot box in March.
Info. meetings and voting
The school district will host two informational meetings ahead of the April 30 vote. The first is this week on Thursday at 6 p.m. both in person at Harwood Union High School and online. Participating via Zoom allows people to comment. The meetings also will be livestreamed via YouTube which is a watch-only format.
The second informational meeting is online only at 6 p.m. next Thursday, April 25.
Voting on April 30 will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in each community. The list of polling places is on the election warning.
As an alternative, ballots are already at town clerks’ offices where voters can visit to cast an early ballot now until April 29. It’s also possible to receive a ballot by mail from a town clerk.
Links for more information: