Voters approve Harwood budget questions by wide margins
March 8, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti March 11: This story was updated with details from the Monday, March 6, annual meeting.
Harwood’s $45.4 million budget passed muster with school district voters, winning approval on Town Meeting Day by a two-to-one margin.
The HUUSD Town Meeting Day ballot. Click to enlarge
According to results released Wednesday morning, the $45,422,221 budget article won just under 66% of the vote: 1,192 to 599. The tally shows 17 blank ballots.
A second question asked voters to approve putting $696,931 in unspent funds from the 2021-22 school year into the district’s Maintenance Reserve Fund. That was approved 1,484 to 304, an even wider margin with 82% voting yes. Blank ballots totaled 19 on this question, according to the tally.
A total of 1,808 ballots were cast across the six towns of Harwood Unified Union School District. Results are not reported by town. Election officials from each town bring ballots to a central location to be combined and counted together in accordance with the school district’s charter.
Based on voter registration data from town clerks in the six member communities, participation in the school budget vote was 15.7%. The district received 1,808 ballots and registered voters across the district number nearly 11,500.
Voters in five of the six communities filled eight of the district school board’s 14 seats. Warren did not have either of its representatives up for election this year.
Waterbury filled two of its four seats: Jake Pitman, who was appointed last fall to fill a vacancy was elected to a new three-year term. Having served one three-year term, Kelley Hacket was elected to serve one remaining year of an unexpired term.
In Duxbury, Cindy Senning was elected to a three-year term having served two years prior.Life LeGeros, who was appointed last year, was elected to serve the remaining two years of an unexpired term.
Ben Clark was elected in Moretown and J.B. Weir in Waitsfield to three-year terms.
In Fayston, two members were elected as write-ins, Danielle Dukette and Mike Bishop. Town Clerk Patti Lewis on Wednesday morning said both needed to confirm that they will accept the positions as is required with offices filled by write-in votes. Lewis said that Dukette received 23 votes for a two-year position and Bishop received 22 votes for a one-year seat, both being unexpired terms. They each needed just 13 votes to be elected, Lewis noted.
The other school ballot that voters received on Tuesday was for the Central Vermont Career Center. It formed an independent school district in 2022 and this year was the first time that voters across the six districts that send students to the center could vote on its budget. Ballots from all of the member communities are to be combined and counted in Barre. That process is expected to be completed early next week.
The proposed Career Center budget on the ballot was $4,135,602.
Annual meeting action
On Monday night, March 6, the HUUSD School Board convened the district’s annual meeting at the Harwood library and online via Zoom. Although this is a public meeting at which individuals who live in the school district vote on the items of business, only four members of the public and one reporter attended.
The agenda covers standard annual items of business, all of which were approved by unanimous voice votes: Rick Rayfield was elected as moderator and then conducted the meeting. Alexia Venafra was elected district clerk and Laura Titus was named as treasurer, both unopposed for a term of one year starting July 1.
The district’s Director of Finance and Operations Lisa Estler shared a slide presentation about the proposed 2023-24 budget that voters would vote on the following day. Some highlights:
The Harwood school district currently has 1,838 pre-K through 12 students, of those 219 are preschoolers. Enrollment has been level for the past two years although the long-term trend shows declining enrollment. By comparison, statistics from the 2011-12 budget year showed enrollment at 2,013 students and a high of 2,039 students in the 2012-13 school year.
The district employes the equivalent of just over 384 full-time employees.
The $45.4 million budget on the Town Meeting Day ballot represents an increase of 6.5% over the $42.6 million budget that voters approved for the current year. It’s the largest increase in the past five years (increases ranging from 1.6% in 2021-22 to 5.6% in 2022-23). The 2019-20 budget was $38.6 million. While it’s the largest increase in the past five years, Estler noted that Harwood’s budget growth is 2% lower than the statewide average for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Estler noted that employee wages and benefits account for 70% of the district’s expenses. The proposed budget aims to keep programs and services level but reflects increased costs in all categories such as supplies, energy, transportation and contracted services.
The presentation included a discussion of how school property taxes are calculated. The $22,322 per pupil spending amount used in that calculation is an average over two years, Estler noted.
Although the equalized tax rate calculation overall shows a drop from $1.52 per $100 assessed property value to $1.44, Estler said, fluctuations in real estate values and the common level of appraisal will mean increases in tax rates that will vary between 5% and 10% by town for the coming year.
Households with income less than $138,500 may be eligible for tax relief from the state Department of Taxes, Estler noted. Find out more online at tax.vermont.gov or calling 802-828-2505.
Estler’s report was accepted. The details of her presentation are contained in the school district’s annual report which is online on the HUUSD.org website.
Annual compensation for school board members and district officers for the coming budget year was set with the amounts the same as the current year: $950 per year for school board co-chairs, $750 per year for board members; $250 for the district clerk to take annual meeting minutes and $50 per hour for additional voting or petitions; $100 for the moderator, and $1,000 for the treasurer.
Other votes authorized the board to hire an accountant to review district financial records and to borrow in anticipation of tax revenue.
A recording of the annual meeting is available to watch on the HUUSD YouTube channel.
The school board meets at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15, for its organizational meeting to elect board officers, appoint one of its members to the Central Vermont Career Center board, and name its newspapers of record. There is time for public comment on the agenda as well. Meetings are held in the Harwood library and online via Zoom and YouTube.