Board mulls options in budget poll defeat
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: March 6, 2009
BELLOWS FALLS – The Rockingham School Board will hold a special session next week to plot what to do about the partial defeat of its school budget Tuesday, one of only four towns in the state to see defeat in the state's new two-vote approach to rising school budgets.
Chairman Charlie Jarras said the board had already decided not to ask for a recount of the 17-vote margin of defeat of the second portion of the budget, which asked for an additional $561,000 in funding.
Jarras said the board had three options under the new state law: resubmit the budget as proposed; cut the budget and resubmit it for another vote, or cut the entire amount and not seek another vote.
Jarras said he was not surprised that the second portion of the budget went down to defeat, and he said it was his private opinion that the School Board should resubmit a reduced budget.
He said the voter turnout was about 20 percent on Tuesday, when only 660 voters went to the polls out of a registered base of more than 3,000.
"I think the voters spoke and asked for some relief," Jarras said, noting that the two budgets combined would have raised school taxes by 4.2 percent, or 11 cents.
Under the new state law, Act 82, any school district whose budget is greater than the statewide per pupil spending and whose rate of increase is 1 percent higher than the rate of inflation must divide the budget into two sections.
Jarras said Rockingham was particularly hard hit with declining enrollment.
Jeffrey Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendent's Association, said only 11 districts in the state needed to have the two-part vote, and in six districts both portions passed.
Three towns — Springfield, Danby and North Hero — defeated both portions of their budget, and only one, Rockingham, defeated just the Act 82 section of the school budget vote. Another town — Orleans — won't vote until March 18, he said.
Francis said a lot of towns kept spending under 2 percent, a recognition of the tough economic times facing the state.
Francis said even though two of the four towns — Springfield and Rockingham — are bordering towns, he said he believed the budget defeats were related to tough economic times.
In Springfield, Superintendent Frank Perotti said the School Board would be meeting on Monday to discuss the budgets defeat.
Perotti said the wording of the two articles, dictated by state law, was "extremely prejudicial" since the wording of the article cites the "maximum inflationary amount."
"It's really, really prejudicial," Perotti said.
The operating budget for Springfield schools was level funded, but the first bond payment on the $32 million elementary school bond boosted the budget by $1.2 million, prompting the two-vote budget.
He said the board would be setting up e-mail and a special phone line so residents could call in and let the board know what their concerns are.
"It's an effort at outreach," he said.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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