The Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) aims to present voters with a school budget offering an increase lower than the rate of inflation. This may mean cutting 15-20 full-time jobs.
That was the message from the first meeting to discuss next year’s budget at Crossett Brook Middle School, December 12. About two dozen community members asked questions and heard district officials explain how they’ll navigate building a budget voters will pass next March.
Some key details:
- The Harwood School Board directed the administration to present a FY2026 budget that increases spending by no more than 2.75% over this year’s budget.
- If the district made no changes to staffing or programming from this year, the new budget would increase by 7.3% or about $3.5 million, according to director of finance and operations Lisa Estler.
- 15-20 full-time equivalent positions would need to be trimmed to present an FY26 budget with less than a 3% increase.
RAN THE GAMUT
Superintendent Mike Leichliter was joined by Estler, board chair Ashley Woods, Warren, and five other board members for the meeting which began with attendees asking general questions about school funding and the 2025-26 budget in particular.
Inquiries ran the gamut:
- How are students counted? Estler explained that for funding purposes, enrollment is based on a two-year average now weighted to reflect actual costs of educating various categories of students.
- How does the Harwood district spending compare to the state per pupil average? Leichliter answered that it is below, but close to the limit without going over and triggering a penalty. The current threshold is $15,926 per pupil; Harwood’s spending in the draft budget is $15,554.
- Can bus routes be cut to save money? Leichliter noted that many buses are not full and some routes have been cut this year. The district has put the bus contract for next year out to bid.
- Could the district move administrative offices out of leased space? The district’s lease for office space in Waitsfield runs out at the end of the 2025-26 school year, Leichliter said, and it hopes to move central office staff to building space that the district owns.
- Are higher taxes leading to better test scores? Leichliter said new state tests make comparisons difficult, but he pointed to the latest school rankings by U.S. News and World Report which show three of the top Vermont elementary schools are in the Harwood district: Waitsfield Elementary at number three, Warren Elementary at number nine, and Moretown Elementary at number 10. Crossett Brook Middle School ranked 16th and Harwood Union High School was 12th on their respective lists, according to the report.
Consolidation
One question steered the discussion to the overall structure of the district and future costs beyond the 2025-26 budget. Attendees asked what happened to conversations about closing Fayston Elementary School. Leichliter said Fayston’s enrollment has grown recently, so a consolidation discussion does not presume that Fayston would close.
Consolidation is now the focus of a new study the school board has commissioned and a committee the board has created. “We are looking at consolidation – period,” said Woods. “But we can’t do it without the feasibility study.”
In November the board approved spending $48,500 to have the Burlington architectural firm TruexCullins begin master planning for the district’s facilities for the next 30 years. The firm presented a four-phase proposal, and the work commissioned so far covers the first two phases.
The architects will look at the needs of each school, what their strengths are, etc., Woods said, and report back to the school board in January. TruexCullins has been working with the school district since 2015 on building-related planning although no significant building projects have been undertaken during the decade. Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus was on merging the middle schools and expanding Crossett Brook Middle School along with significant renovations to Harwood Union High School. Voters rejected a $59.5 million bond proposal for that project in November 2021.
Last fall, TruexCullins architects laid out a proposal for more than $90 million of possible renovations and repairs to Harwood Union Middle/High School. That effort was put on hold in the spring after voters rejected the 2024-25 school budget in March and tax increases (without a bond) were in the double digits.
Now the firm is being asked to do an updated review of all Harwood school buildings to determine their condition, building needs and associated costs, make recommendations for how to potentially reconfigure the district with fewer school buildings and ultimately reduce building-related costs in the future.
At TruexCullins’ request, the school board last week formed a Building Use & Visioning Committee for this process. It has three board members so far and Woods said it wants to add a member of the public. The group meets for the first time tonight, December 19, at 6 p.m. via Zoom.
Leichliter explained that the process will not recommend facility changes for the 2025-26 school year. “It’s a process that will take time,” he said. The detailed look is needed, he said, to determine which facilities are worth investing in and which may be too expensive to maintain long-term.
Estler cautioned that consolidation may come with up-front costs. For example, Waitsfield Elementary School is at its capacity now and could not accommodate many more students should another Valley school close. School officials also acknowledged that consolidating facilities could have downsides of losing community centers and longer travel for some students.
Asked about past studies of building capacities and conditions that produced much data, Woods answered that the architects are “not starting from scratch.”
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
Estler shared slides with a 2025-26 budget preview. The district needs to find cuts to afford cost increases that are growing faster than inflation, Estler said. To maintain the same level of education and staffing currently in place this year, the budget would cost $51.4 million which is $3.5 million higher than what voters approved on the third budget vote in May.
The draft budget has a bottom line of $49,209,927 for next school year, an increase of just 2.75% over this year’s $47,892,873. That compares to information shared by the state showing that school districts around Vermont have begun working on draft budgets with increases averaging 6.1%. The state tax commissioner already has projected that the average education property tax increase next year will be 5.9%. This year’s budgeting will be aided by an increase in the district’s projected revenues which could keep the increase to 2% overall.
To keep the Harwood district’s spending increase under 3%, Estler said the district will need to trim the equivalent of 15 to 20 full-time positions. Leichliter said school officials are also looking at increasing class sizes given the need to reduce staffing.
