Gina Tron
BARRE — Students and adults filled the library at Spaulding High School Monday night Sept. 21, with roughly 100 additional people joining by Microsoft Teams, as the Barre Unified Union School District Board heard emotional testimony about the potential loss of sports, clubs, and other extracurricular activities following the district’s third failed budget vote.
Many of the students who spoke became emotional as they described how athletics and clubs have contributed to their mental health and sense of belonging.
Senior Andy Evans, who said he participates in numerous clubs and two varsity sports, urged Barre residents to consider the impact of continued budget disputes on students.
“Before you is an example of the strong-minded group of people that would like to explain to you and the people of Barre that you are not helping us, and you are not sticking it to the man by voting no,” Evans said. “You’re messing with the possibility of pulling apart the community that we as students, with the help of our coaches and teachers, work to build.”
Evans said blaming the school board would not help the community.
“You will only destroy the community for your children,” he said.
Evans was one of dozens of teens who spoke before adults began their own passionate testimony. Several adults proposed cutting administration rather than extracurricular activities.
“If you cut sports, you won’t get a budget passed until you put them back in,” Jeff Howard said.
Public comments stretched nearly three hours as the district faces an Oct. 1 contractual notification deadline for co-curricular and activity positions.
Under the district’s master agreement, employees who hold those positions must be notified by Oct. 1 if the district does not intend to offer the activity. New superintendent Emilie Knisley said the district had consulted with the Vermont-NEA and its labor counsel about whether activities could be restored if a budget later passes. The activities cannot simply continue with volunteers if the paid positions are eliminated, Knisley said, because replacing contracted work with volunteers could violate labor law.
Knisley said she would recommend that fall sports continue, while the board could establish a later deadline for deciding whether winter sports would continue.
The discussion made clear, however, that eliminating athletics and co-curricular activities would address only a fraction of the district’s larger financial problem.
Athletics, clubs and the transportation associated with those activities cost roughly $800,000, according to figures presented to the board. Regular home-to-school transportation is a separate expense of roughly $1.1 million.
The district is operating without an approved budget under a state framework that allows it to spend up to 87% of its most recently approved budget. Knisley said the difference between the budget voters rejected last week and that 87% spending level is $8.453 million.
“We don’t have $8,453,000 to cut,” Knisley said. “We couldn’t have the schools open and run them safely with that kind of cut.”
Instead, the district is looking at ways to reduce spending while continuing to operate schools.
Knisley said the district is receiving only about a third of the Vermont Education Fund payments it would normally receive while it lacks an approved budget. It continues to receive special education funding and reimbursement-based federal grant funding, but must front some grant expenses before being reimbursed.
The district received $11.59 million in Education Fund money in the days before Monday’s meeting, Knisley said, but its next scheduled payment is not until December. A line of credit can help the district manage that cash-flow gap, Knisley said, but cannot allow the district to spend beyond the 87% limit.
The board discussed other possible cost-saving measures, including freezing nonessential spending, limiting hiring, reviewing staffing and examining other areas of the budget. Members also discussed whether to reduce the proposed budget by roughly $350,000, or change it by only enough to qualify for an accelerated vote.
The district can use an accelerated process for another budget vote if the new proposal differs from the previous one. Board members discussed trying to hold another vote as quickly as possible while also weighing the consequences of additional cuts.
Transportation emerged as another potential cost-saving measure. The district’s transportation contract requires 30 days’ notice to terminate service, but board members and administrators noted that restoring transportation later could be difficult because of a shortage of bus drivers and could potentially cost more.
No additional budget cuts were made Monday in a meeting that stretched late into the night.
