HARTFORD — Voters will be asked to approve a $58.7 million school budget for the next academic year.
The overall expenditure budget that will come to voters in March is up $3.6 million, or 6.5%, over the current year, while revenues are also projected to increase by about $1 million.
The budget is estimated to increase the homestead tax rate in Hartford by 10.6%, District Finance Administrator Jacob Vezina reported to the School Board last week. This would be a $533.60 increase on a $400,000 home.
The board voted unanimously to approve the proposed budget last Wednesday.
Hartford taxpayers are likely already facing high property taxes next year after the first town-wide reappraisal since 2017 brought property values up 84% on average this summer.
For the most part, the school district budget contains no major increases in staffing or programs over the current year, Superintendent Caty Sutton told the School Board at a budget meeting Jan. 7.
The Hartford School District’s seven schools provide a “very robust experience” for its more than 1,300 students in terms of extracurricular activities and opportunities that are available to them, Sutton said. The proposed budget allows the district to “continue to offer what we are currently offering.”
Many of the budget drivers are beyond the district’s control, Vezina reported at the same meeting. For example, district health insurance costs are up 7.4% and contracted services are up 3.1%.
Another cost driver is work that is mandated but not funded by the state, Vezina and others said. For example, the budget has to account for keeping up with testing for PCBs and lead contamination, which the state requires but does not pay for. The Hartford School District has had PCB contamination issues in recent years which have driven up facilities costs.
The budget includes a $167,000 increase in facilities expenditures for 2027. The district had many facilities repairs to handle this year and “unfortunately those needs are just not going away,” Vezina said during the district’s first budget meeting in November.
Board member Jeremy Warren said though he agrees the regulations are “keeping everyone safe,” he is “a little disgruntled” about the contamination monitoring that comes with no funding from the state and is “just thrown on our lap and we have no choice.”
A House bill, H.542, introduced this legislative session would do away with Vermont’s PCB testing program. But even if the bill passes, schools that have previously tested positive for unsafe levels of PCBs would have to continue to monitor for contamination. The testing is expected to come at the state’s expense, though funding for PCB testing at the state level ran dry last year.
In addition to health insurance costs, salaries, which are up by $1.8 million, or 8.27%, are also driving up costs.
The budget includes a $91,200 appropriation for a new district operations coordinator position. The coordinator’s responsibilities would include managing transportation services, facilities use and rentals, and emergency operations planning, Assistant Superintendent Aron Tomlinson said in a Dec. 3 meeting.
These are all areas of growing need in Hartford, Tomlinson said.
This year, the school district has struggled with getting some pre-kindergarten students to school consistently and faced challenges with transportation for special education students.
In terms of facilities use, “there’s an increasing need for us to know who’s in our buildings when, where, who’s responsible and that also goes to safety,” Tomlinson said.
Other increases include about $100,000 to replace the district’s internet server, which is “reaching the end of its lifespan,” Vezina said during the district’s first budget meeting in November.
“When it comes to data integrity and Wi-Fi I would rather not risk it, so for me that’s a pretty crucial option,” Vezina told the board.
The annual Hartford School District Meeting will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 in the Hartford High School Auditorium. Australian ballot voting will be Tuesday, March 3 in the Hartford High School gym.