The Essex Westford School District is bringing a level-funded budget to its voters this spring. Given inflationary pressures, that's going to mean deep cuts 鈥� including the closure of one of five elementary schools.
The district's anticipates cutting more than 50 positions. And it would effectively close Summit Street School, a pre-kindergarten through grade 3 elementary school with 187 students in Essex Junction.
Pre-K students will likely stay at Summit, but other children would be redistributed to two other nearby elementary schools in Essex Junction, Hiawatha Elementary and Thomas Fleming School.
School Board Chair Robert Carpenter said such difficult cuts were necessary to head off another double-digit tax increase.
鈥淚 know there's rhetoric across the state of like, 鈥楾here's a lot of bloat in schools and there's a lot of fat that we need to cut off.鈥� But I can tell you for sure as a district, that we are at the point of cutting bone,鈥� he said.
Like most school districts across Vermont, Essex Westford is facing dwindling enrollment and intense inflationary pressure, mostly notably in health care. Insurance costs are projected to reach approximately $16 million next year 鈥� about 14% of the district鈥檚 total budget, according to posted to the district鈥檚 website. And Essex Westford is dealing with the impact of , a recent retooling of Vermont鈥檚 education formula that was intended to encourage higher-need districts to spend more, and more affluent, urban districts like Essex Westford to spend less.
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The district鈥檚 spending proposal has engendered strong pushback.
鈥淲hen I chose to settle here and raise my family here this is not what I envisioned for myself or my kids,鈥� one parent, Ashley Neary, . 鈥淚t鈥檚 appalling.鈥�
But even as Carpenter said that the board鈥檚 proposed budget represented a 鈥減ainful crisis with human costs,鈥� he also argued it offered some opportunities.
Repurposing Summit would allow the district to expand its in-house therapeutic program for students with special needs, for example. That should allow the district to save money on tuition to pricey private programs, and better serve kids closer to home, Carpenter said.
Schools across Vermont are aggressively downsizing this year as they attempt to deal with intense cost pressures and taxpayers who emphatically demanded relief last March and in November.
In Montpelier, education reform talks have dominated this year鈥檚 legislative session. But Carpenter said those state-level conversations have injected even more anxiety into the local debate, because they appear to be ignoring one of the most important cost drivers at play.
鈥淢any people in our community are saying: how do we address health care? And as a board chair, I feel terrible saying 鈥業 don't know.鈥� Because I've spoken to everyone right up the chain, and no one seems to have an answer for how this can be mitigated and not just keep, in essence, bankrupting our schools,鈥� he said.
Essex Town, Essex Junction, and Westford voters head to the polls April 8.
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