In advance of an April 30 revote on a $48,888,319 for the Harwood Unified Union School District, ballots are available for early and absentee voting at local town clerks’ offices.
As The Valley Reporter goes to press on April 17, the school board is meeting with a full board for the first time since before Town Meeting. The board interviewed and appointed three new members at its April 10 meeting, filling three vacant Waterbury seats on the board. Those new members are Elizabeth Brown, Corey Hackett and Dan Roscioli. They are serving until next March.
The board is also expected to approve plans from its newly-formed publicity committee for outreach on the upcoming vote. Part of that outreach includes two public hearings, one of which is tonight, April 18. Tonight’s meeting is in-person at Harwood and via Zoom. The Zoom link can be found at huusd.org. People can also watch via the district’s YouTube channel. To participate in the discussion people need to use Zoom.
The second public hearing is April 25 by Zoom only. To participate and watch use Zoom. To watch only, use YouTube.
Voting on April 30 will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in each community. The list of polling places is on the election warning.
The April 30 budget revote comes after voters rejected a $50.8 million budget at Town Meeting last month. That budget was an increase of almost 12% over the prior budget and was projected to raise property taxes from 20% to 30% across the six towns in the district.
The new proposed budget has trimmed almost $2 million, most of it by removing a proposed $1 million contribution to the district’s maintenance reserve fund. Other reductions include cutting three positions through attrition which saves $310,000 and using a 20% vacancy factor which saves $400,000. The balances of the cuts come from one-time deferrals.
The result of that trimming is a budget that’s going up 7.3%. The new budget --based on current state figures for the per pupil yield will increase property taxes from 13.4% to 22.4% across the district based on each town’s common level of appraisal. For a home appraised at $350,000 that increase would be:
Duxbury $889
Fayston $1,014
Moretown $927
Waitsfield $1,378
Warren $1,537
Waterbury $1,113
For specific details on the budget visit huusd.org, click on the Board tab and then open the agenda for the April 3 board meeting. That budget information also includes information about a budget with steeper cuts that reduces the budget to $47.7 million and cuts an additional 10 positions.
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