WOODSTOCK — Voters in the Mountain Views School District will be asked to approve a $111.95 million bond article in March to construct a new school building for the Woodstock Union High School and Middle School
But there are a few contingencies that would reduce the cost. District taxpayers would be on the hook for around $84 million.
“We won’t borrow the money and we won’t start building the school until we have that certainty,” board member Matt Stout, of Woodstock, said in recording of a Jan. 8 meeting.
One contingency requires that the district raise at least 25% of the bond amount, as much as $27.99 million, in “federal or State grants, gifts, revenues or other sources of funding to offset the project costs,” according to the warning article approved by the Mountain Views School District Board last week.
Another relies on the Vermont Legislature passing a law separating capital construction debt from per-pupil education spending, which is currently subject to a tax penalty if it exceeds 118% of the statewide average per-pupil spending.
State Rep. Charlie Kimbell, D-Woodstock, has drafted legislation to do this, he told the board at its Jan. 5 meeting.
“I do have some assurances that the bill on decoupling will be taken up and there’s general agreement that that should happen,” Kimbell said.
The Mountain Views Supervisory Union Board voted unanimously to place the bond on the Town Meeting ballot at the special Jan. 8 meeting with seven of 20 members absent.
The board also unanimously recommended sending two other bonds for the current high school and middle school building totaling $550,000 to voters: One would improve the wastewater removal system and another would replace the 1958-era boiler and fuel storage tanks.
The “repairs are urgent and needed whether or not there is a new” school in Woodstock, Jim Fenn, the district’s director of finance and operations, and Joe Rigoli, the director of buildings and grounds, emphasized, according to meeting minutes from the Jan. 5 board meeting.
The school, which currently holds about 415 of the district’s 1,000 students, is more than 70 years old and is estimated to be more than 96% depreciated. It is one of the worst school buildings in Vermont, a 2022 study conducted by the state Agency of Education found.
In March 2024, voters across the school district’s seven member towns — Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading and Woodstock — rejected a $99 million bond to completely replace the WUHSMS buildings, 1,910-1,570.
After that rejection, and a subsequent change of law that would have caused every dollar spent by the district over 118% of the statewide average per-pupil spending to be taxed as if it were two dollars, the board put the project on an indefinite hold.
That hold ended this summer when the district launched a Regional Hub Working Group to plan the future of the project.
As part of the group’s work, it raised about $30,000 in private funds to rehire an architect and construction estimating firm to adjust the construction plan the state Agency of Education approved in 2024, according to a Jan. 3 memo from board member Seth Webb, a Woodstock resident who serves as chairman of the working group.
The group reduced the plan by about $1 million, including by converting gabled roofs to flat roofs, squaring off a rounded facade, eliminating planned windows and reusing furniture.
The project has already been pre-approved by the Vermont Agency of Education, which opens up the district to receive state school construction aid.
Vermont has not issued school construction aid since 2007, but Vermont’s education reform bill, Act 73, reinstates the funding program effective in July. Awards will be available in the school year beginning in August 2027 at the earliest.
Other cost savings come from a “phased approach.” The proposed bond would fund a renovation to fit about 600 students, which accommodates the district’s population with “minimal growth.”
The board plans to leave options open for future construction phases that would increase the new school’s capacity to 750 and then 1,000 students.
In spite of the cuts, inflation has driven up construction costs by 13% since the failed 2024 vote.
If voters approve the bond, construction would start in 2027 and be completed for the school year beginning in August 2029, according to the memo. The plan is to keep the current school building open during construction and build the new facility next to it.
“There’s still a lot of education” to be done on the project and the article in order for it to pass, Webb said in a recording of the Jan. 8 board meeting.
The project “gives us an opportunity to lean into redistricting,” Webb said.
Mountain Views has already signaled its desire to be the center of a new school district and to work with the Hartford School District and Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union. Board members emphasized that it is well-positioned because it already serves students from 28 communities.
With the reintroduction of school construction aid under Act 73, school districts are eligible for assistance equal to 20% of the debt service cost of the project as well as up to another 20% in bonus incentives. The legislation also established an advisory board to oversee school construction aid and make funding requests to the Legislature.
Since its first meeting in September, the advisory board has focused on how to handle pre-existing debt that has built up since construction aid was paused in Vermont almost 20 years ago if school districts are consolidated, according to its first draft legislative report from Dec. 15.
The Mountain Views board plans to tap into this fund for the project, but because the program does not kick off until July there is some uncertainty around when funding would be available, board members said.
Despite the uncertainty, Stout argued the bond vote is still worthwhile and could even persuade legislators to prioritize finalizing details for the construction fund.
“If we can bring it to the Statehouse that we have raised the bond and it was passed by voters contingent on this, it will just hold their feet to the fire,” Stout said.
Board members may be overly optimistic about their impact in Montpelier.
There is “not as much sanguine reactions” among legislators to school districts “jumping ahead and increasing overall school spending” in anticipation of school aid becoming available, Kimbell, the state representative, noted during the Jan. 5 board meeting.
In spite of the project’s high price tag, board member Anna Sessa, of Reading, said she is “pretty confident” that voters will support the bond, though she acknowledged that she was also confident in 2024.
This time around, Sessa said voters are more informed about education financing and challenges in Vermont because of the conversation around education reform, which could help garner more support.
“I think it’s worth the gamble, especially because we have an approved project,” Board Chairwoman Keri Bristow of Woodstock said.
The Mountain Views School District Public Informational Hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26 in the Woodstock Union Middle and High School library. School District voting by Australian ballot will be Tuesday, March 3 in voters’ respective towns.