To The Editor:
As you may know, the HUUSD staff has worked diligently and prepared volumes of financial analysis related to various school redesign models. While they acknowledge that the numbers are preliminary and somewhat incomplete, we now have our first opportunity to put some perspective on the issue. How much will taxes go down with redesign and is it all really worth it?
HUUSD staff tells us that, depending on the model, the cost of reconfiguring our schools is between $7 million and $11 million and that we will save between $1.2 million and $1.8 million in annual operating costs. If you throw out the rather draconian “Option A,” the net savings – operating savings less debt costs – are in the range of $700,000 to $800,000 a year (see Page 53 of the board packet at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AyF7cXKZ5jvkXbD0RlQ8_smuUrfhkJtj/view).
During the 2019 budget discussions, the school board developed an algorithm for translating incremental school costs into pennies of Homestead Tax (see Page 15 of the January 23, 2019, board packet at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HSEwta4TM-fiixx540GojLRHMRqO89v4/view). For 2019, $190,000 of school cost change equals a $0.01 change in tax rates.
For the $300,000 district median assessed home value, the school redesign models will save the median family (assuming no income-based reduction) between $111 and $127 a year. Some argue that the $3 million Thatcher Brook cafeteria should be excluded from all models. In that case, school redesign saves the median family between $144 and $160 a year in taxes. In both cases, the median family would save $120 to $135 a year with redesign versus no redesign.
I make no judgment as to whether $120 to $135 a year is a lot or a little. But if school redesign means you drive more than 207 to 232 miles extra a year to get to a school that’s still open, based on the 2019 IRS cost of mileage, you lost money from school redesign! And that doesn’t even factor in the cost of your time!
One last metric: Caitlin Hollister’s recent Valley Reporter op-ed said HUUSD spends $17,627 per student. School redesign reduces the per student cost to around $17,200. If our enrollment drops by more than about 40 students across the entire district because of school redesign, we would pay more in taxes than we would have without redesign. Could we lose 40 students because of redesign?
Leigh Michl
Fayston, Vermont
