Revising the VUHS Budget Proposal - Tuesday, 3/17, 6pm, VHUS Library

Dear Vergennes Union High School District residents,

As you probably know, the School’s 2015-2016 proposed budget was defeated during the March 3rd vote. The school board is working with our Administration to develop a revised budget proposal, and we need your input. The budget that was presented for vote on March 3rd balanced two competing needs:

1) The budget aligned staffing levels to projected need, by relying on class size policies;
2) The budget corrected significant underestimates in the total annual spending needed to carry forth the educational program and manage the facility.

The budget as presented reflected a reduction of 4 Full Time Equivalent (“FTEs”) staff across various content areas by aligning class size with the class size policy. This, is in addition to the reductions made last year, total in excess of 8 FTEs. The proposal also anticipated a 0.8 and 0.5 FTE increase to meet student needs and required classes such as literacy intervention and middle school physical education.

The cuts presented in our March 3rd proposal were necessary sacrifices in order to present a fiscally responsible budget. We received limited feedback about our proposal, which we took as a good sign. Following the defeat of the budget, we have heard from voters, students, and school staff regarding the reasons for the defeat. Comments have been split between sentiments that the budget was too large resulting in too large a tax rate, and sentiments that too much was reduced.

On March 17, at 6pm, the VUHS Board will reconvene at VUHS to discuss and possibly move a new budget proposal forward for consideration by the voters this April. You can provide us with your feedback by attending. However, if attending meetings is not possible, please email your elected school board member (https://sites.google.com/a/anwsu.org/anwsu1/school-boards/vergennes-high-school-board). We are happy to communicate by email or set up a few minutes to talk on the phone. We would be grateful to anyone willing to spend some time with us on this important topic. For our part, we will guarantee you an open-minded, non-judgmental conversation and we will be happy to answer any questions you have. Your feedback is very important to us. For our part, we will also plan a more robust effort to notify voters of the content of the revised budget proposal.

Lastly, I would like to also echo a sentiment penned by my colleagues on the Ferrisburgh Central School Board regarding Front Porch Forum. This resource has proven to be a great tool for notifying community members about important events, issues and dates. It has not, however, proven itself to be a productive tool for debating difficult and important topics. In fact, we have all seen cases where FPF posts have devolved into personal attacks which detract from these topics. For this reason, the VUHS School Board will not engage in debate through this forum. Please consider our sincere invitation for your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Neil Kamman, Vice-chair, VUHS School Board of Directors