By Larry Gravelle
I’m a 20-year veteran high school English teacher who is just finishing his first year at Harwood Union High School. I live in Moretown with my wife, who is a math and science teacher at HUHS, and we’re raising our 8-year-old son in this incredible community -- a community that drew us from Colorado due in part to its wonderful elementary school, small class sizes (it matters!) and overall support for public education. We are homeowners facing the same tax increases as our friends and neighbors. I am writing this letter to urge those in our community who are on the fence to vote yes on this current budget. If our community fails to pass this budget, we face losing many more student-facing positions and could, I fear, jeopardize the sustainability of our district.
There are a few pieces missing about this budget discussion that I’d like to share:
- A “no” vote or failure to pass a budget will lead to an exodus of qualified early and mid-career teachers from this district. Many of us with less seniority are nervous about the security of our jobs and are questioning whether we’ll survive these next several years. My wife and I (who are both experienced Advanced Placement teachers) are discussing our job security in this district and whether we should be proactive and seek employment in other districts or states. Vote yes to retain high quality teachers and staff.
- A protracted vote discourages applicants and encourages teachers like myself, my wife, and others in our position to look at districts that are passing budgets. Like many other teachers at Harwood, I took a substantial pay cut changing from a Chittenden County public school to Harwood. As Chittenden schools pass budgets, many of these early and mid-career teachers will leave (many permanently) for these substantially higher-paying positions in districts that do pass budgets. Many talented and passionate teachers like us chose Harwood to support our community and improve our schools, but we, like others in the same situation, have a mortgage. Vote yes to keep qualified teachers and encourage competitive applicants to apply to our district.
- Vermont is experiencing far fewer applicants for positions, including traditionally easy-to-fill positions due to its cost of living. Its colleges do not produce enough education graduates to fill open positions. This state’s education system relies on transplants. Realistically, only teachers who are already here can actually afford to live here and Dr. Mike has mentioned job offers to qualified candidates who were forced to withdraw applications due to the cost and availability of housing. Vote yes to sustain public education in Vermont.
- We’re already bound to lose student-facing positions and will lose dozens more without a budget in place by July 1, when we will have to borrow 87% of last year’s budget and pay it back (with interest. . . a complete waste of our money) to the state of Vermont, and if this budget fails, we’re only saving pennies on the dollar. Please vote yes to avoid squandering money in the form of interest.
- The ski community we left in Colorado can barely hire teachers. When I started there in 2005, 400 applications would come through for a desirable position. Now, the school often scrambles to find one. The reason is simple: middle-class incomes cannot support living in desirable communities. The result is the school has had to rely on woefully underprepared warm-bodies who manage students while they take online classes through Chromebooks. This could be the future of our district. Please vote yes to avoid this.
- Teachers who are also members of the community have a direct investment in their schools. They’re more involved and hold students to higher standards as their own children and the children of their friends and neighbors attend their schools. Vote yes to keep your neighbors directly invested in and improving their own school district.
- Schools changed a lot in 20 years -- ask any teacher how much needier students are academically, socially, and emotionally now compared to before the pandemic. And while the pandemic becomes a handy scapegoat, it only hastened trends we teachers were noticing long before the lockdowns. What this means is that, regardless of reason, students need more help and attention than ever before. The gaps between our higher and lower achieving students are widening and this gap will widen further if more support positions are cut. Please vote yes to give our students the support they need.
We can shrink our budget through attrition and work together to pressure Montpelier over the next five years to find a reasonable funding mechanism, but please let’s not cut our nose off our community’s face to spite our legislators.
Gravelle lives in Moretown.
