EAST MONTPELIER — Education spending in the Washington Central Unified Union School District would increase nearly 13% under the first draft of a budget just presented to a school board that had hoped to tether this year’s increase to October’s rate of inflation.
That ship started sailing before the inflation rate — roughly 3% — had been calculated, and Superintendent Meagan Roy described it as a “soft target” that school administrators didn’t even try to hit when crafting the $42.2 million spending proposal she presented to the board at its Wednesday night meeting.
The draft budget’s bottom line calls for spending $3.3 million more than $38.9 million voters in Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester approved in March — an increase of 8.55%. However, a projected loss of revenue — just over $780,000 — would boost the amount needed to be raised in taxes to $35.8 million – an increase of $4.1 million, or 12.96%.
Board members were divided on the path administrators proposed to limit the increase to just under 13%, some worried getting there wasn’t enough, and before the spirited discussion was over Roy’s request for “concrete direction” produced a response Board Chair Flor Diaz-Smith feared was “as clear as mud.”
It was somewhat clearer than that, but only because some board members — Diaz-Smith, Kari Bradley and Ursula Stanley among them — who worried the proposal could test taxpayers’ tolerance and defer difficult decisions for a second straight year, opted not to push the point.
Based on some members’ initial reaction to staffing cuts that are part of the proposal, limiting the increase to 12.96% could be challenging.
Some of those positions were created with pandemic-related federal funding that won’t be available next year, some have been chronically vacant, and others are a reflection of the district’s steadily declining enrollment.
The proposed reductions include three classroom teachers, portions of two nurses, and nearly three full-time counselors across the six-school district. The latter reduction would be partially offset by the hiring of 1.5 positions that would be partially paid for with grant money.
The list, which includes the equivalent of nearly four paraprofessionals — two of them long-vacant positions at U-32 Middle and High School — and portions of a math interventionist and library media specialist at Calais Elementary School, represents a net savings of roughly $890,000.
Board members were told that’s most of the $919,000 needed to keep the projected increase in the district’s per pupil spending below 10%, theoretically avoiding the possibility of a state review under a new law — Act 127 — that should benefit the district, though, it is too soon to say how much.
Board members were told the teacher reductions — one at Berlin Elementary School another at East Montpelier Elementary School and a third that would be achieved by combining two undersized kindergarten classes at Rumney Memorial School in Middlesex and Doty Memorial School in Worcester — were based on enrollment and would comfortably maintain staffing ratios.
The proposed combination of the two kindergarten classes — one projected to have six students and the other seven — at a yet to be determined location, coupled with plans to combine under-enrolled preschool programs in Middlesex and Worcester toward broader reconfiguration that is under review and some suggested could be expedited to achieve additional savings while broadening opportunities for students.
Roy said some additional changes could be considered, and while she stopped well short of recommending them in the context of the current budget cycle, she noted operating five pre-K-6 elementary schools comes at a cost.
“It’s expensive to run our current configuration,” she said. “I say that without judgment, it just is.”
Roy would later note that is the shared view of school administrators, while acknowledging the importance of community engagement before making wholesale changes.
“We feel really strongly we could be configured in a way that lets us do much more,” she said.
Though other interim options could be explored and further consolidation of preschool is one of them, Roy said significant structural changes could complicate the ongoing configuration conversation.
Roy stressed the draft spending plan was carefully considered by administrators, who collectively believe the proposed reductions wouldn’t hamper the district’s ability to provide “robust programming” for students.
“Your leadership team has brought you a budget that we believe sufficiently staffs us,” Roy said, when pressed on the point, adding: “We have a budget we are recommending to you that we believe meets student needs.”
Perhaps the most controversial of the reductions involved reverting to pre-pandemic part-time nurses at elementary schools in Calais and Worcester.
Board members Mckalyn Leclerc and Maggie Weiss objected to those reductions, while Leclerc recalling last year’s aborted proposal to cut a Spanish teacher at the only one of the district’s elementary schools — Rumney — that offers foreign language.
“I would love all of our elementary students to have Spanish, but (if I had to choose between) one school having Spanish and all the schools having a nurse, I would rather have all the schools have a nurse,” she said.
“I would much rather have health care providers in every building full time than Spanish in one … school,” Weiss agreed.
It wasn’t the only time the conversation devolved into what else could go in order to spare at least some of the positions administrators recommended could be eliminated.
School Director Chris McVeigh at one point wondered what the cost of the equity scholar in residence at U-32 Middle and High School was and said he’d prefer to see cuts in administration or other areas that don’t provide direct services to students.
Others, like Bradley and Stanley, said they were uneasy with the budget’s bottom line and concerned about what that will mean to taxpayers if, for the second straight year, the board balks at an administrative recommendation that includes some strategic reductions.
“Not everybody in our community can afford a budget that doesn’t have any cuts,” Stanley said, suggesting she was prepared to support the administrative proposal despite her desire to see more reductions.
So was School Director Jonas Eno-Van Fleet.
“I would vote for this budget today,” Eno-Van Fleet said, noting he was heartened by the belief the new student weighting formula that will be phased in over five years would provide some relief to the district when it comes time to set the tax rate.
How much relief is an open question and is based on variables, including one that won’t be set until after the Town Meeting Day budget vote.
Increases in salaries and benefits account for well over half — more than $2.6 million combined — of the proposed increase and $30.3 million of the draft budget’s $42.2 million bottom line.
The budget assumes the board will increase its annual contribution to the district’s capital fund by more than $120,000.
This year the board transferred just over $900,000 to the fund and the number included in the draft budget is now over $1 million.
Transportation costs are up more than $200,000 — from $1.6 million to $1.8 million — based on the budget contract.
david.delcore
@timesargus.com
