BRADFORD, Vt. — At Tuesday’s annual meeting, voters in the Oxbow Unified Union School District will face a budget bearing a substantial spending increase and an even larger tax increase.
Driven mainly by higher wages in new faculty and staff contracts and higher costs for special education, the proposed budget of $23.3 million is nearly 8.3% higher than the current year’s spending.
The amount to be raised by taxes is up by about 9%, from a little under $16.4 million to a little under $17.9 million.
The projected tax impact makes this budget year perhaps the most difficult of board Chairwoman Danielle Corti’s 17-year stint in school governance.
“We grappled with cutting more,” Corti, a Newbury resident, said in a phone interview. “If you do that, to the detriment of the students, it’s really damaging.” The board reduced capital expenses, in favor of looking at the district’s capital needs more broadly and planning a bond issue, perhaps as soon as next year, Corti said.
A range of factors in Vermont’s education funding formula are behind the tax increase in the Oxbow district, which oversees Bradford and Newbury elementary schools, Oxbow High School and Riverbend Career and Technical Center, which share a campus in Bradford.
Vermont bases education tax rates on per pupil spending, and the Oxbow district’s weighted pupil count is projected to decline next year by around 80 students. A lower student count drives up the per pupil cost.
Both Bradford and Newbury are projected to see a decline in their common level of appraisal, or CLA. That’s a measurement of how close a community’s property assessments are to fair market value. Both towns will see a drop from around 90% to around 80%, which also has the effect of raising the projected tax rate.
The homestead tax rate is projected to rise by 40 cents per $100 of assessed value in Bradford, an increase of nearly 23%, and by 44 cents in Newbury, an increase of 26%.
That would add about $1,000 to the tax bill on a $250,000 home in Bradford, and about $1,100 to a $250,000 home in Newbury. In Vermont, resident households earning $115,000 or less pay homestead taxes based on their income.
The Oxbow district, formed under Act 46, Vermont’s 2015 school consolidation law, has rejected budgets before, most notably in 2020, when voters turned down three budget proposals before finally approving one almost halfway through the 2020-2021 school year.
“I’ve talked to people who are generally steadfast education supporters and they asked ‘What happens if we reduce (the budget) from the floor?’ ” Corti said. “It’s pretty nerve-wracking.”
The new labor contracts are intended to bring the district’s pay scale closer to its surrounding districts, so it can better compete for staff, Corti said. The contracts have not been finalized.
The increase in special education, of around $477,000, is attributable to having more students on individualized education programs, or IEPs. The district also is receiving less Medicaid reimbursement, Corti said. Since public schools are mandated to provide special education services, sometimes the district has to hire outside contractors for such services as speech and occupational therapy, often at greater expense, because it can’t fill jobs in those areas.
The budget also includes opening a full-day preschool program in Newbury, to replace a private preschool that closed in Bradford.
“It is essential for families to be able to go to work,” Corti said, and the district is mandated to provide early education services to children with learning disabilities. Starting children in the classroom at ages 3 and 4 also brings down rates of special education in later grades.
Voters also will elect two School Board members from the floor on Tuesday. Current board members Angela Colbeth, of Bradford, and Tim Ross, of Newbury, are reaching the end of their terms. Both have said they’d be willing to be nominated and to serve if reelected, Corti said.
Oxbow Unified Union School District will hold its annual meeting at 6:30 p.m., on Tuesday, April 28 at Oxbow High School. All voting takes place from the meeting floor and voters must be present to discuss and vote on the warned articles.
