We need the public - students, parents, retirees, business owners and
property taxpayers - to engage in a dialogue with us about how our local
school boards should address the pressures of declining enrollment,
state pressures to reduce school spending and the impact of the
recession on local property taxpayers that fund our schools. The Harwood
Union School Board has scheduled a public forum to address these issues
on Tuesday, September 28, at 7 p.m. in the Harwood auditorium.
We are very proud of the quality of our schools. Our superintendent
recently prepared an extensive data workbook that compared Harwood Union
with some of the best high schools in Vermont. This comparison revealed
that Harwood students are on par with students from Mount Mansfield,
Essex, CVU, South Burlington and U-32. Most of these schools spend
significantly more per pupil than Harwood. Our students benefit greatly
from the high quality staff and programs at Harwood.
However, Harwood and other Vermont schools face significant challenges
in the years ahead. We have experienced and will continue to experience a
significant decline in the number of students attending Harwood.
Enrollment has dropped from 862 students in the 2004/05 school year to a
projected 762 this year. If current forecasts continue, Harwood
enrollment will drop to 720 students in just four years.
This enrollment drop spells trouble for taxpayers. Local tax rates,
including those for taxpayers who qualify for reduced property taxes due
to "income sensitivity" protections, are based upon "spending per
pupil." Even if schools freeze their budgets, taxes will go up if
enrollments fall. Unless school spending is reduced to match the
reduction in students, local taxpayers will face higher taxes each year.
And, while some taxpayers are shielded from large tax increases by the
"income sensitivity" provisions, the money to pay for that tax relief
has to come from somewhere.
State economists suggest that the growth in the cost of income
sensitivity payments is not sustainable without huge increases in
property tax rates or increases in general fund taxes. With the state
already experiencing large budget shortfalls, it is not reasonable to
expect the state Legislature to increase taxes to pay for school
spending growth while cutting health care, welfare, transportation and
other programs.
How will Harwood meet these budgetary challenges in the coming years?
First, at the request of the Harwood Board, our superintendent has
convened a Transformation Committee composed of school board members,
administrators, students and teachers to examine how the school might
transform the way it provides education. The committee will be looking
at all aspects of Harwood's operations to look for ways to use the
strengths and talents of Harwood staff to implement new approaches that
improve learning in a cost-effective way.
Second, the schools within the Washington West Supervisory Union
(Waterbury, Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield and Warren) are
discussing ways to consolidate or reconfigure how we provide education
within the six towns we serve with the goal of increasing efficiency and
quality. New state laws require the consolidation of certain services
at the supervisory union level and provide financial incentives for
consolidation of school districts. The Harwood board and other boards
are actively considering several approaches to see if they would save
taxpayers dollars.
Finally, in the current year, the Legislature directed the Department of
Education to provide voluntary "spending reduction targets" for all
districts in Vermont. In our supervisory union, we are being asked to
trim budgets in our seven schools by $519,000 (about 2 percent). These
targets are not mandatory, but as the governor pointed out in his
editorial last week, failure to make these reductions now will make our
job much more difficult in future years as enrollments fall and property
taxes rise.
In the next few months, the Harwood board and other local school boards
will confront some of the most important - and difficult - issues that
they have faced in at least a decade. We need your input in making these
decisions. Please plan to attend the public meeting at Harwood Union
High School on Tuesday, September 28, to make your views known.
Scott Mackey is chair of the Harwood Union School Board. He lives in Waterbury.
