HARTLAND — Voters are facing budget requests of $8.6 million to educate Hartland schoolchildren and more than $3 million for municipal operations, as well as one contested election for town office.
The bottom line of the school budget, which is voted by Australian ballot, is close to the amount that voters approved a year ago. With an overall drop in enrollment, however, the projected spending per equalized pupil would increase by 5.5%, to $19,060.
The proposed municipal bottom line, which is determined on the floor of Town Meeting, is up more than $191,000, and the amount to be raised in taxes ($2.4 million) would go up 9.8%, or $221,600. In the Town Report, Town Manager Dave Ormison points to the addition of $70,000 — covering pay and benefits — for a new position in the Highway Department, and to increases of $20,000 for road paving and more than $17,000 for employee health insurance.
On the election ballot, residents Jennifer Grant, Clyde Jenne and Matt Dunne are running for one-year terms as Town Meeting moderator and as School District moderator. Both positions were left vacant in 2019, when no one ran for the position. The Selectboard and the School Board have appointed Grant to moderate this year’s respective meetings, Town Manager David Ormiston said last week.
Selectboard member Martha McGlinn is running unopposed for a two-year post on the Selectboard. On the School Board, incumbents Sarah Stewart Taylor and Nicole Buck are also unopposed.
No candidates filed to run for a three-year term on the Selectboard, for a three-year seat as a lister, or for one-year terms as town agent and town grand-juror. Jenne, the town clerk, said recently that write-in candidates need ballots cast by at least 1% of the voter checklist.
The annual Hartland School District Meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, in Damon Hall. Town Meeting will be held at Damon Hall at 9 a.m. on March 3, with school and town voting by Australian ballot that day running from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.