By Edward Casey
There has been much falderal of late about voting down the proposed Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) budget. Yet budget decisions impact all towns and all taxpayers. There is a harsh reality in front of us today if we want to provide the best academic opportunities. It will be increasingly hard to do that at a price that is acceptable to taxpayers in all six towns. The school board directed all principals and the administration to present an unprecedented six budget options.
Please consider the following in light of the desire to maintain the status quo:
Budget No. 1: $40,472,342, 6-cent tax rate increase (resulting in as much as a 15-cent increase in the local homestead tax rate in one town).
Budget No. 2: $39,720,778. No new staff; limits intradistrict choice for seventh- and eighth-graders; moves Moretown’s fifth- and sixth-graders to Crossett Brook Middle School (CBMS); reduces elementary music and eliminates foreign language K-4 with a 2-cent tax rate increase.
Budget No. 3: $40,317,342. This limits intradistrict choice for seventh- and eighth-graders and prohibits cuts to existing programs with a 5-cent tax rate increase. (This budget does not increase programming opportunities for students.)
Budget No. 4: $40,314,842. This adds staff to CBMS to allow the approval of most intradistrict choice applications for incoming seventh- and eighth-graders. It prohibits cuts to existing programs and has a 5-cent tax rate increase. (This budget would eliminate funds for a hearing project and professional development.)
Proposed budget before voters, Budget No. 5: $39,772,342 and is based on moving fifth and sixth Moretown Elementary School students and all seventh- and eighth-graders in the district to CBMS for the coming fall. This budget has a 2-cent equalized tax rate increase. This budget includes the $315,000 for the annex or temporary classrooms that will be needed at CBMS.
Budget No. 6: $39,224,842. This is based on moving all seventh- and eighth-graders (and Moretown fifth- and sixth-graders) to CBMS and eliminates most new programmatic or operation additions that administrators requested and has a 1-cent tax rate reduction.
Voting down this budget will not stop the fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth merger. The budget before you preserves as many positions as possible and enhances programming. Voting down this budget would be doing more harm than good for all of the kids in our district. Doing the best we can with what we can afford is the reality we live in. Every town’s budget is going up and this school budget is as responsible as could be.
Vote yes on this budget for the kids and for fairness to all taxpayers. In these stressful and emotionally charged times (and understandably so) vote for the candidates that will bring sensible, thoughtful and pragmatic leadership to the HUUSD Board in a time when tough decisions need to be made.
Final thought: If the towns cannot agree on a budget by June 30 then, per state law, we revert back to 87 percent of last year’s budget of roughly $38 million and cut 13 percent of that. So, cut about $5 million at $78,000 per teacher. You worried about teacher cuts now?
Casey lives in Moretown.
