RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

High school budgets, taxes up for vote



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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: February 25, 2009

With school spending on the rise and student populations diving in some towns, local voters are faced with deciding how those factors will affect their students and pockets this Town Meeting Day.

In more than 16 towns, union high school budgets will be up for a public vote.

The education tax rates that result from the spending plans vary from sending town to sending town, depending on an increasing, or decreasing, number of high school students residing in those towns.

School administrators in charge of budgets for Middlebury Union, Otter Valley Union and Mill River Union say inflationary budget expenses such as teacher salaries and health care as well as declining enrollments are contributing to hikes in the amount of money taxpayers are obligated to pay toward the high school budget figure they will see on March 3 ballots.

The school budgets also include money to cover the costs of the district's administrative supervisory union.

The figures provided by superintendents Monday are only estimates — the state has yet to set a statewide base education tax rate that could result in slight variations in the amount taxpayers will pay and municipalities have yet to factor in townwide property values.

In Brandon and five neighboring towns, an $11,101,261 Otter Valley Union High School budget for 2010 equates to six different local school tax rates.

The Otter Valley budget is up $107,377, or less than 1 percent, compared to last year's spending plan of $10,993,884 million.

Brandon taxpayers, where high school students make up 54 percent of the entire town's student population, will vote on a budget that means a rate of 66 cents per $100 of assessed property value to support the high school budget, before the town's common level of appraisal is factored in. That's compared to a rate of 67 cents last year.

Goshen taxpayers will see a rate of 72 cents, compared to 60 cents last year, because their student percentage has increased from 48 percent to 58 percent. In Leicester, taxpayers will pay 76 cents, compared to 79 cents last year, and in Pittsford, taxpayers will pay 62 cents compared to 61 cents.

Sudbury taxpayers will pay 65 cents for the school budget compared to 66 cents last fiscal year and in Whiting, taxpayers will see a reduced rate of 56 cents, compared to 65 cents because the town's high school student percentage decreased – from 52 percent to 45 percent.

Taxpayers in three towns – Clarendon, Shrewsbury, and Wallingford — will cover the cost of a $9,880,470 Mill River Union High School budget this year, up 1.2 percent, or $118,993, from last year's budget of $9,761,477.

Clarendon high school students make up 54 percent of all students in town and taxpayers there will pay about 66 cents per $100 of assessed property value to support the high school's spending plan (compared to the same rate last year), Shrewsbury will pay 65 cents for its high school students – about 53 percent of all their students — compared to 69 cents last year, and Wallingford taxpayers will pay 69 cents for their 57 percent of high school students, compared to 70 cents last year.

In Middlebury, the Union High School Board aimed to stay under state-mandated thresholds to avoid tax penalties and a two-vote requirement.

The high school's budget is $15,530,470 this year, up 3.4 percent or $510,953, compared to last year's spending plan of $15,019,517.

The rates and percentages of high school students in seven towns that send their students to Middlebury are as follows:

Bridport (54 percent) will pay 77 cents, compared to 51 cents last year.

Cornwall (53 percent) will pay 76 cents, compared to 83 cents last year.

Middlebury (56 percent) will pay 81 cents, compared to 83 cents last year.

Ripton (52 percent) will pay 74 cents, compared to 70 cents last year.

Salisbury (53 percent) will pay 77 cents, compared to 78 cents last year.

Shoreham (57 percent) will pay 83 cents, compared to 84 cents last year.

Weybridge (50 percent) will pay 73 cents, compared to 70 cents last year.

cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com








READER COMMENTS


Otter Valley's building is falling apart. Repairs that should have been made generations ago. Never mind the outlandish salaries for "highly qualified" staff. Unfortunately they have already cut programs that will affect everyone. Maybe, enrollment is declining because families are choosing to send the children to private schools or pay tuition for another school. After all how can a student learn effectively sitting in a cold damp closet for a class room. It's a shame that the educational part of all this is what gets cut. Which in turn builds another generation of tax increases. Because the people handling the money don't have proper education themselves. People don't mind getting what they pay for. But when we're paying out the nose and not getting what our children deserve. It's a shame.
-- Posted by SB None on Wed, Feb 25, 2009, 4:41 pm EST

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