Mountain Views school budget avoids cuts that brought opposition

By CHRISTINA DOLAN

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 01-09-2025 7:00 PM

Modified: 01-10-2025 8:52 AM


WOODSTOCK — The Mountain Views School Board voted this week to approve a $30.8 million budget that includes all of the unified arts and two math and science positions slated for elimination in earlier budget versions.

On Monday night, the board voted — 14-3, with one abstention — to approve the budget, which also raises tuition rates for districts that send students to Mountain Views schools and mandates a 10% spending reduction across all sports and co-curricular programs.

The budget is up 3.5% over last year’s $29.8 million budget. Even so, it is expected to result in a reduction in tax rates for all but one of the district’s seven member towns.

Woodstock, Killington, Barnard, Pomfret, Reading and Bridgewater will see reduced rates, while Plymouth’s will increase by 10.15%.

The budget is a “nice balance of providing our students with what they need while also being cognizant of taxpayer dollars,” Reading, Vt., representative Anna Sessa said in a recording of Monday night’s meeting.

In previous budget iterations, the board had sought to keep per-pupil spending below a state-mandated penalty threshold.

Beyond that threshold, each dollar spent would be taxed as if it were two dollars.

A November budget iteration contained cuts to 17 full- and part-time teaching and staff positions.

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The board faced fierce public opposition to the proposal at a packed meeting in early December. Residents and district teachers and staff urged the board to reject the cuts to arts and foreign language programming.

At its Dec. 16, the board signaled a willingness to reconsider the cuts, voting 8-7 to restore the unified arts positions — visual and performing arts, music and world languages — but not the math and science roles.

The budget the board approved this week will incur spending penalties.

The exact dollar amount of the penalty will not be finalized until the Legislature approves a tax yield rate, likely in June, but Mountain Views Finance Director James Fenn estimates it to be close to a million dollars.

“Based on the preliminary numbers we have from the state at this time the member towns will need to raise an additional $905,903 to send to the state education fund as a penalty,” he said by email Thursday.

The tuition increase will generate an estimated $120,000 in revenue to help mitigate the impact of the penalty, according to data provided by Finance Committee Chairman Ben Ford.

School districts that send students to Mountain Views schools will pay an additional $1,500 per student.

For the 2026 fiscal year, high school tuition for sending districts will be $22,510.

Districts sending elementary students will pay $19,680, and $12,120 for pre-K students.

“Our taxpayers have been hit and hit hard by tax increases over the last several years,” Ford said at Monday’s meeting.

Increasing tuition will allow Mountain Views to “share that burden with the choice towns who send students to our district,” he added.

Anticipating budget constraints this fall, the district in September began offering teachers and staff buyout offers of half of their annual salaries to leave the district.

As of Dec. 3, 11 people had taken advantage of the offers. With positions restored, the district must now undertake a hiring process to fill them.

“We had several elementary (unified arts) teachers, a high school world language teacher and a high school math teacher all accept the buyout, so we will be hiring replacements for those positions for next year,” Fenn said.

Christina Dolan can be reached at cdolan@vnews.com or 603-727-3208.