Barnard Town Meeting, starting with the School District annual meeting, will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 6, at Barnard Town Hall. Australian ballot voting for a Windsor Central Modified Unified Union School District runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m at Town Hall.
Barnard
The fate of the pre-K through sixth grade Barnard Academy has been at the center of town politics for past two years as the state implements its Act 46 school consolidation plan, which led to a proposal that Barnard fifth- and sixth-graders attend schools out of town.
Barnard voters decidedly rejected the consolidation plan at last year’s Town Meeting. In the aftermath of that vote, the Barnard School Board drafted and submitted a 103-page “alternative governance structure proposal” to keep Barnard Academy independent within the Windsor Central Supervisory Union while at the same time satisfying Act 46’s goals in quality education and efficiency.
That proposal is now being reviewed by Vermont’s Agency of Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe, who will make a recommendation on the Barnard plan to the state Board of Education in June. The board will make its final decision by November.
In the event the board rejects Barnard’s proposal — as many in town fear — the state then likely would force the school district to merge with the newly established, multi-town Windsor Central Modified Unified Union School District, according to Carin Ewing Park, a member of the Barnard School District board.
And, per the union school district’s documents, that would lead to Barnard Academy’s physical property, which includes in addition to the building nearly 8 acres in the center of the village, to be conveyed to the MUUSD — or what some Barnard residents are derisively referring to as “mud.”
So with an eye to keeping the Barnard Academy property in local control, the Barnard School Board has put an article on the school warning that asks voters to approve the formation of a joint subcommittee between the town and school district “to look into the ownership of the Barnard Academy and surrounding lands and submit a plan.”
The article is about exploring a way to keep the Barnard Academy property in local hands in the event Barnard loses its bid for independence and the property would end up being controlled by an outside entity, said Andy Cole, chairman of the Barnard School District.
“If we merge with another group there are some in town who don’t want to give up the property,” Cole said. The article “seeks to gives residents of the town of Barnard a choice in what happens to the physical property of Barnard Academy and playing fields around it.”
The Barnard Academy building itself occupies about 1 acre and about 3 acres is given over to playgrounds, courts, sport fields and an outdoor classroom. Another 3.8-acre parcel was gifted to the town in the 1990s for use by the school; it includes an educational nature trail, which was recently built by volunteers.
Park noted that any part of school property that the town decided to buy from the school district — for example, only the woods area — would be protected from the conveyance to MUUSD in the event of a merger. The subcommittee, if voters approve its formation, would be tasked with deciding whether to sell all or only part of the school district property to the town.
If the future of the 62-student school is unknown, at least the budget is clear cut.
The Barnard School Board is proposing a budget of $1.3 million, which is up 8.3 percent from the approximately $1.2 million approved last year. But if this year’s proposed budget is approved, spending per equalized pupil would actually fall 1.6 percent to $15,538 because there are nearly three more equalized pupils counted in the 2019 fiscal year.
The Barnard Academy budget would result in an education tax rate of about 74 cents per $100 of assessed property evaluation, or $1,850 for a property valued at $250,000. The proposed Barnard Academy tax rate is two cents lower than the prior year’s.
Factoring in taxes collected to pay for Woodstock Union High School, which Barnard students attend, the total school rate would be $1.50 per $100 of assessed value, or $3,750 on a $250,000 home. Last year, the combined education tax rate was $1.48.
On the town side, the Selectboard is proposing a $1.83 million town and highway budget, up 1.9 percent from the $1.8 million voters approved last year.
Total highway spending is proposed at $1 million, an increase of about $15,000, of which $737,000 is to be raised from taxes, according to the Selectboard’s proposed budget plan.
Total municipal spending is proposed at $785,000, up 2.5 percent from $766,000 last year, of which $573,000 is to be raised from taxes.
Selectboard Chairman Rock Webster said that the highway department needs to spend $30,000 to clear away trees and dig out some of the embankment at Bridge 35 across Locust Creek because trucks can’t make the turn onto the bridge from Route 12. The full scoping of the project will cost significantly more, he noted, but this year’s plan is modestly aimed at clearing away trees, stumps and lose soil.
“That’s about all we’re really spending money on,” he said, apart from regular increases in the town budget.
Preston Bristow, an assistant to the Selectboard, estimated that the municipal tax rate would increase in fiscal year 2019 to about half a penny to just under 45.6 cents per $100 of valuation, so municipal taxes on a $250,000 home would be about $1,125.
He said property owners can expect a slight tax rate increase this year, before the state education tax is included.
“We’re talking about a 1 percent increase, which we’re pretty happy about,” Bristow said.
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
