Frequently Asked Questions

For more information, please visit our Budget page on the district's website, use the Let's Talk School Board or Budget topics, or email the school board with questions. CVSDschoolboard@cvsdvt.org

Also, view the Budget Overview to learn more!

The Board used these budget goals when considering the proposed budget for the April 16th vote:

• Maintain support for the implementation of the CVSD Mission and Vision

• Meet or exceed Education Quality Standards

• Reduce tax impact based on failed March 5th vote and community feedback

• Focus on reductions that minimize the impact on students

FY = fiscal year. The CVSD Budget year begins July 1 and ends June 30. We are currently in FY24 and the proposed budget is for FY25.

The education spending increase from the FY24 budget is 5.8%. The Champlain Valley School District is committed to supporting all students. This budget represents our very best effort at continuing to provide the high-quality education that taxpayers expect from CVSD despite numerous external forces bearing down on the district. These include statewide and national healthcare increases, inflation, and a tight labor market.

Factors contributing to the budget increase are:

• Negotiated salaries, including the $2/ hour support staff increase last year

• A 16% increase in the cost of health insurance

• Note: health insurance for school employees is negotiated at the state level, not the district level. It is not something the Board has the power to change.

Property tax rates are based not on the budget increase but on the increase in the “cost per weighted pupil.” Because we have a state-wide education finance system, our tax rate is also based on statewide education spending increases.

The estimated pre-CLA (Common Level of Appraisal) tax rate is increasing 2¢ from last year. (From $1.30 to $1.32 pre-CLA) The gross tax rate impact will vary by town.

Local tax rates are also influenced by the CLA or Common Level of Appraisal. The CLA adjusts the locally assessed property values to the estimated fair market value. The CLA ensures that each Vermont town is treated equally and uniformly, regardless of when they last appraised. The CLA is not determined by the school district.

Education is a portion of the property tax bill that households receive. Other impacts to property taxes come from town budgets. See the Vermont Department of Taxes FAQs page for more information.

Vermont has a statewide school funding system. It is impacted by all school spending across the state. The 30 failed budgets (from Town Meeting Day votes) across Vermont are being reworked and lowered, in addition to those that were postponed and revised. Those changes will have a positive impact on CVSD’s property tax rate. At this time, we don’t know specifics about those changes. Therefore, the projected percentage changes to property taxes, which vary by town, are estimates.

Here are additional resources from the state:

• Education Tax Rate FAQ

• Frequently Asked Questions About Pupil Weights in Vermont's Education Funding Formula and Act 127 (2022) Changes

Act 127, as passed in 2022, was designed to provide more resources to schools to support students with higher needs, in particular - multi-lingual students, those experiencing poverty, smaller schools, and rural schools.

• It does this by giving more “weight” to students in these categories in the calculation that determines our education taxes.

• Districts with comparably higher percentages of students in these categories are “tax-advantaged” by the new law, those with fewer, such as CVSD, are considered “tax-disadvantaged” by the law.

• Due to H.850’s recent passage, CVSD will receive a 17¢ “discount” this year pre-CLA because we’re tax-disadvantaged by the law. That discount will decrease by 20% yearly for the next four years. CVSD is the second-highest impacted district in the state.

Negotiating the contribution amount that teachers and staff make to health insurance costs and the level of insurance plan provided (e.g. platinum, gold, silver or bronze) used to be handled by the local school boards as part of the contract negotiation process. Starting in 2019, that bargaining is conducted on a statewide basis by a commission of 10 people appointed by the Vermont School Board Association (5) and the Vermont teachers union (5). They negotiate benefits and then pass the costs onto all school districts. The CVSD board has no direct involvement in that process as a local school board.

Our final proposed budget comes in at $101,801,185. The pre-CLA tax rate is $1.32, which is a 2% increase from FY24.

The budget we are presenting to our taxpayers has been reduced by $5 million. That includes:

• - $2.1 million in personnel expenses

• 42 full-time equivalent positions

• 7 district and central office positions

• 19 paraprofessional positions

• 16 teaching positions

• - $400,000 in non-personnel spending deferrals or reductions

• - $1.5 million for facilities improvements, now deferred

• + $1 million from the fund balance to offset costs for taxpayers

Full-time equivalent, or FTE, is a unit of measurement to determine the number of full-time hours worked by all employees in the business. According to their contract, teachers at CVSD work 37.5 hours per week and are considered full-time or a 1.0 FTE. If a position is assigned to 0.8, this position would work 30 hours per week. Administration and central office staff are considered full-time at 40 hours per week.

View the chart below or click on it to see a larger view with more information

These positions and reduction in spending were equitably spread across the district based upon the percentage of students in each building vs the whole district.

By organization, here’s where reductions were made: Central Office, District Level, and Operations: $776,000 CVU: $612,000 Williston: $413,000 SCS: $317,000 HCS: $226,000 CCS: $144,000

District and school leaders used those numbers to guide decision-making. There was an initial focus on positions currently open and on possible restructuring due to retirements. Building-based leaders worked with their school teams to make recommendations and decisions. Conversations also took place with the CVEA, the Champlain Valley Educator Association, which represents most employees in the district.

In an effort to make significant reductions while preserving CVU’s core mission and student programming, CVU reduced across athletics, arts, and academics; making reductions in any one area would significantly affect opportunities for students. Additionally, three of the reductions were not staffed in the 2023-24 school year. Finally, they avoided any reductions of fall sports teams to ensure that as many ninth graders as possible would have a more positive start to their CVU experience.

JVB Basketball - Boys

JVB Basketball - Girls

JVB Lacrosse - Boys

JVB Lacrosse - Girls

JVB Baseball

XC Assistant Coach

Note: not all Vermont high schools have JVB teams.

Many of the people behind these positions may be retiring or may be offered a different role in a CVSD school.

1.0 Restorative Practices Coordinator

1.0 Personalized Learning Coordinator

1.0 Business (due to retirement - some classes shifting to math dept)

1.0 Library

1.0 Mentoring Coordinator (.5 Funding)

1.0 Campus Supervisor/Athletics Support

2.0 Intensive Para (CVSD)

.5 Chorus

.5 Theater

.5 French

.88 Instructional Coach

.33 Science Support

.33 Latin

Here are the reductions to positions that fit those categories in our PreK-8 buildings: Some of these are related to enrollment and class size.

.4 world language at CCS

.2 Spanish at HCS

.2 French at HCS

.2 computer science at SCS

.2 digital learning leader at SCS

.5 music at WCS

.1 art at WCS

.6 enrichment Williston

RIF = Reduction in Force. These notifications must be provided to teachers by the district on a specific date according to their contract. Should the need arise to send out RIF notices, they will be distributed across many categories in all schools. Seniority and licensure play a part in determining who will and will not receive a RIF notice.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that we don't have an approved budget, around 20% of our faculty will receive a reduction in force (RIF) notification on April 9. The district can only offer teacher contracts for the amount of salary and benefits that we know we can honor if we get to July 1st and are operating off a budget of 87% of our 2023-2024 budget. With that said, when we have an approved budget, we expect to retract a majority of the RIF notices and issue contracts to many of those who receive a RIF notice.

Some important points

• This is not a notification of new staffing reductions. Most of those being notified will be offered a position at CVSD if the budget passes on April 16.

• This obligation to notify applies only to members of the teachers union. Support staff contracts are due in May and non-union employees are handled through a separate process.

Support staff notifications will come in May per their contract. The budget vote may inform that process.

The other articles that were on the ballot for Town Meeting Day’s vote all passed. Voters will only see the one budget article on the April 16th ballot.

On or before Tuesday, April 16th, voters will be asked to approve one budget for all public schooling in the Champlain Valley School District (CVSD). CVSD includes Charlotte, St. George, Williston, Shelburne, and Hinesburg.

We will hold a Budget Informational Meeting on April 15 at 5:00 pm at CVU High School. Please join us either in person or remotely via Zoom. The information to join the Zoom is on the left side of the district's homepage.

Yes, presentations to various groups and organizations in our community are currently being scheduled. That includes Selectboard meetings, family-school organization meetings, rotary meetings, and more.

There will be a budget-related virtual Town Hall on March 27th.

POLLING PLACES on April 16:

Charlotte - Charlotte Town Hall

Hinesburg - Hinesburg Town Hall

Shelburne - Shelburne Town Center – Gymnasium

Williston - Williston Armory

St. George - St. George Town Hall

Residents will vote by Australian ballot at their local polling places on April 16, 2024, or you can request a ballot early. Ballots will arrive in town offices around March 27.

Early voting: Ballots will not be automatically sent to you if you voted by absentee ballot on Town Meeting Day unless you had previously requested absentee ballots for all elections for calendar year 2024. You may request ballots by phone, email, or stopping in your town offices. You may request mailed ballots for your family members as well.

Voted ballots are brought to a central location and co-mingled (all ballots are mixed together) before being counted by officials from each town’s Board of Civil Authority. One of the agreements in our Act 46 consolidation that was signed by the Vermont Secretary of State is that we will co-mingle the ballots before they are counted. It is therefore not possible to separate the counts by town.

Join us for the CVSD Budget Informational Meeting on Monday, April 15, at 5:00 pm at CVU. It will also be possible to join remotely via Zoom. See the calendar on the left side of the district’s homepage for information to join.

A student's education is a journey. A standardized assessment is only one snapshot of student achievement. While it produces scores that can be compared over time and in some cases compared to state and national trends, these standardized measures do not capture the full picture of a student's strengths and areas for growth nor whether the student will be successful in future endeavors. Please see the Assessment Data page on the district's website.

Find out more online at www.cvsdvt.org/budget

Contact the CVSD School Board: cvsdschoolboard@cvsdvt.org

Use Let’s Talk to reach out. Select either the School Board or Budget topics.