Phil Dodd
Joining several other local school districts and one-third of school districts statewide that have rejected their budgets, voters in the Washington Central Unified Union School District defeated their school budget by a vote of 1,884 to 1,360 Tuesday. The tally of ballot votes occurred Wednesday night and the results were posted on the Washington Central website Thursday morning. The School Board will meet next week to discuss the results, according to the website.
Washington Central operates five elementary schools plus the U-32 Middle School and High School, and all are affected by the budget defeat. In a Front Porch Forum posting before the vote, Washington Central School Board Chair Flor Diaz Smith said the tax rate increases if the budget passed were estimated at 26% in Berlin, 18% in Calais, 25% in East Montpelier, 21% in Middlesex, and 15% in Worcester.
The Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools (MRPS) budget was also defeated on Town Meeting Day. The vote in Montpelier was 1,507 to 1,214 against the budget, while Roxbury passed the budget 173 to 139. The estimated tax increases in those towns had been 23% in Montpelier and 12% in Roxbury. The MRPS school board met Wednesday night to begin work on a new budget.
Other local school budgets that were defeated include those of the Barre Unified Union School District (covering Barre and Barre Town), the Harwood Unified Union School District (Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield, Warren and Waterbury), and the Paine Mountain School District (Northfield and Williamstown).
