Thirty-One School & Supervisory Districts Reject Town Meeting Budgets

The total number of known Vermont school districts and supervisory unions that rejected proposed school budgets at Town Meetings now stands at 31.

The Washington Central Unified School District (Berlin, Middlesex, Worcester, Calais, and East Montpelier) announced Wednesday night that its budget had failed. Yesterday afternoon, the Vermont Superintendent’s Association provided VDC with a comprehensive list of 29 failed budgets.

Meanwhile, the South Burlington school board immediately went to work preparing a new, smaller budget for voters to consider. The new budget will reduce projected property taxes from 22.5% to 14.5% by drawing on a surplus fund and cutting some curriculum and co-curricular activities, the superintendent said per a WCAX report.

Officials in the Burlington and Winooski school districts say that Act 127, the ‘pupil weighting’ formula that benefits school districts with many pupils from lower-income families, provided much-needed state funding, thus easing the passage of their budgets. It remains to be seen if the Legislature adjusts the formula in ways that reduce this funding.

Many of Vermont’s school districts have yet to vote on the 2025 budget.