School district offers $40.39 million budget, plans for $2.2 million surplus
February 27, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in less school spending during spring 2020 on things like busing, field trips and even trash and recycling. Voters on March 2 will consider a plan to allocate a $2.2 million surplus. File photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The effects of COVID-19 ripple through Vermont 2021 Town Meeting Day as ballots replace meetings and, in the case of the Harwood Unified Union School District, voters need to weigh in on both a $40.39 million budget and plans for a $2.2 million surplus from 2020.
Those items are two separate questions on ballots for Tuesday’s election. Other housekeeping items for the district will be covered in a separate annual meeting later this spring.
The first question presents the proposed $40.39 million budget for fiscal year 2021-22 which begins July 1. That total reflects spending that’s 1.6% higher than the current budget year.
The second question presents a $2.2 million surplus that the district finished with at the end of June 2020 and plans to split it three ways: $600,000 has been included as revenue in the 2022 budget; $1 million would go into the maintenance reserve fund; the remaining $615,456 would be set aside as a “rainy day fund” for either operations or maintenance.
Details on the budget are available online on the district’s website, HUUSD.org where there is a summary document as well as the annual report with many specifics on the home page.
School district leaders will host the second of two online public information meetings Monday at 6 p.m. where the public may attend and ask questions using this Zoom meeting link. Details on how to join or just watch are on the school website as well.
The first presentation and Q and A session was held Feb. 3 and the recording is online on the district’s YouTube channel and on the Mad River TV website.
No school juggling next year
The proposed budget does not call for any reconfigurations of schools. The school board has paused plans for merging middle school classes into space at Crossett Brook Middle School for next year. However, the budget does including funding for architects to continue work on building needs related to long-term maintenance and reconfiguration that will likely lead to a construction bond possibly as soon as November.
The budget adds funds to create a human resources staff position for the district. That function to date has been handled by the superintendent. The budget also will pay for a search process to replace Superintendent Brigid Nease whose contract ends in 2022 and she has said she will not seek to renew it.
A recent school board vote after the budget was completed for the March 2 ballot has appeared to create a sum of unallocated funds in the 2022 budget. The 6-6 decision that passed due to the board’s weighted voting system will cut four of the eight core classroom teaching positions at Harwood Middle School for next fall. That will reduce spending by about $300,000, school officials estimated, but those funds will still be included in what the district raises in taxes for next year.
Superintendent Nease said those funds could help cover costs of staffing needs elsewhere in the district.
“The role of the administration is to make operating decisions throughout the school year that remain within budget – that do not exceed the bottom line,” Nease explained. “I am not sure that there is an understanding and awareness by the community at large, that every year what we predict and ‘guesstimate’ at budget development is on what we will spend and on what changes we may see.”
The $300,000 unspent on the middle school teachers would go into that equation, Nease said. “It may end up on the bottom line, or it may be reallocated to Moretown or Fayston for example, where we have a couple of classrooms at 20 and 21 students. If students move into those grades, another teacher would be added, who is not in the original budget, so this money could be used to offset that. I could give many other examples.”
The tax rates to support next year’s budget vary across the district from $1.77 per $100 assessed property value in Waitsfield to $1.88 in Duxbury; Waterbury’s rate would be $1.85 per $100 in value. The latter translates to an increase of $275 on a home valued at $250,000. More details on the tax impacts are in the budget detail on the school district’s website.
Surplus is a windfall for maintenance
District Finance and Operations Director Michelle Baker said the surplus was particularly large last year mainly due to the drastic changes to school operations last spring due to the pandemic. In mid-March 2020, schools ended in-person instruction for the remainder of the school year.
Baker noted that the district then did not spend what it normally does on regular functions such as bus transportation, spring sports, field trips, graduation, etc. “Contracted services to students were also significantly reduced from March to June. Even items like trash, compost and recycling, and utility use were much reduced” she explained.
Last year, the district also had a surplus and allocated $1 million into the maintenance reserve fund. Baker said the district has spent about $700,000 per year building-related upkeep projects such as fixing roofs and sidewalks, replacing carpeting and flooring, upgrading heating and security systems.
Baker said the maintenance fund currently has a balance of $2.9 million and next year’s to-do list totals $1.4 million. The list can be found in the district’s annual report.
Baker said the district’s auditors recommend keeping that reserve account with a healthy balance to address building needs at the seven campuses without having to borrow money and pay interest - a move she noted “saves money in the long run.”
Along those lines, the biggest projects on next year’s list are: $75,000 for a boiler at the Fayston school; ventilation work at Warren and Waitsfield schools estimated at $100,000 each; the roof at Harwood at $265,000, and HVAC upgrades at Harwood pegged at $400,000. The latter two items have been considered in school board discussions about a bond as well.
The surplus allocations into the reserve fund and the additional “rainy day” fund must be approved by voters. State law otherwise requires surplus funds to be used for the general school district budget.
Half of the school board is on the ballot
In addition to the two school finance questions, voters in five of the district’s six towns will fill seven of the 14 seats on the school board.
Three of Waterbury’s four seats on the Harwood board are on the ballot. Incumbent and Chair Caitlin Hollister is running unopposed for a one-year unexpired term. Three candidates are seeking the two three-year seats: incumbent Michael Frank and newcomers Scott Culver (also a candidate for select board) and Marlena Tucker-Fishman.
In Duxbury, Brain Dalla Mura is the lone candidate for one open seat; Warren’s Jonathan Young is on the ballot for one seat as well. Incumbent Theresa Membrino in Fayston is unopposed for another term; and in Moretown, Kristen Rodgers is seeking re-election with one challenger, Sam Rosenburg.
Moretown voters also will consider a question on the ballot brought by petition from a citizen group asking whether the town should consider leaving the Harwood Unified district. The item did not have the support of the town’s selectboard but it contained enough signatures to get a spot on the Town Meeting Day warning.
Some Moretown residents have been unhappy with the district’s plans for reorganizing schools, including a proposal last year to send Moretown Elementary School fifth and sixth graders to Crossett Brook Middle School. That move did not happen after the district rejected the school budget last March.