With looming vote to close Roxbury’s school, town sues Montpelier Roxbury school district

The town of Roxbury has sued the Montpelier Roxbury Public School District alleging the district violated election law and needs to revote on its original budget, which failed on Town Meeting Day.

The legal action comes as the school district is scheduled to vote at the end of April on a revised budget that would close Roxbury Village School, which currently serves about 40 students. That plan would mean bussing Roxbury’s students to Montpelier starting next school year.

Meanwhile, more than 30 school districts statewide continue to vote on new budgets after voters rejected their initial spending plans. Residents in at least 12 of those districts have already shot down a second version of their budgets, according to data collected by the Vermont School Boards Association and Vermont Superintendents Association. 

Statewide, school spending increases are projected to cause average homestead education property tax bills to rise 15%. State analysts have revised that number downward from 20% earlier this year as schools cut money from their budgets and lawmakers consider adding revenue to the state education fund. Actual tax bills will vary widely town to town. 

A variety of factors, including the costs of health care, school construction and special education have all contributed to a roughly $190 million projected spending increase across Vermont.

In its suit, Roxbury town alleges that the Montpelier Roxbury school district held its required informational budget meeting after the polls had already opened in Montpelier on Town Meeting Day. 

The town argued in court filings that the school district violated state law, which requires an informational meeting be held “within the 10 days preceding” a budget vote. 

The late meeting, held online, “prevented the voters from having the necessary information to make an informed vote,” the town argued. 

Libby Bonesteel, superintendent of the Montpelier Roxbury district, said in an email Wednesday afternoon that the district had not yet been served court paperwork and declined to comment further.

The lawsuit also includes as plaintiffs two parents of a child at the Roxbury Village School, Melissa and Lawton Rutter, who along with the town allege in court filings that they “will be damaged” by the closing of the Roxbury school and were harmed by the “faulty vote” held by the school district.

The town of Roxbury is requesting a judge suspend the revised school budget vote planned for April 30, which, if approved, would send Roxbury Village School students to Montpelier next year. Instead, Roxbury is asking the court to require a revote on the original budget. 

The budget that Montpelier-Roxbury voters rejected on Town Meeting Day would have raised education property taxes 24% in Montpelier and 12.9% in Roxbury. The budget currently set for consideration on April 30 would raise taxes 13.8% in Montpelier and 3.6% in Roxbury.

Montpelier and Roxbury voted to merge school districts in 2017, a product of the state’s district consolidation efforts, Act 46.

In revotes, school budgets continue to fail

Voters across the state rejected nearly one in three school budgets on Town Meeting Day, the highest margin in recent history. 

Since those March 5 votes, the trend has continued, with at least 12 revotes failing.

Districts that have already rejected the second version of their budgets include Addison Northwest, Kingdom East, Georgia, Slate Valley, South Burlington, and St. Johnsbury. On Tuesday, the list got longer as voters rejected new budgets in Elmore-Morristown, Fairfax, Lamoille North (Elementary), Milton, Mount Abraham, and Springfield school districts. 

While statewide, education spending is expected to rise 11.5% (down from a projected high of 15% earlier this year), voters in some districts with much lower expected increases have also nixed school budgets.

Slate Valley — which includes Benson, Castleton, Fair Haven, Hubbardton, Orwell and West Haven — rejected a second school budget that would have increased per pupil spending by 0.2%, according to its school board chair. 

In Milton, voters on Tuesday rejected a revised budget that would have increased spending per student by less than 1.2%. But because of Vermont’s recent changes to education finance, plus the statewide school funding system, homestead property taxes in Milton would have still risen 12.6%. 

Despite the rejections, 78 school districts have passed budgets, according to the state school board and superintendents associations. 

Hartford, which delayed its initial vote, approved a budget and school bond on Tuesday.

Voters in the Paine Mountain School District, which serves Northfield and Williamstown, passed a revised budget on Tuesday.

One of the largest districts in the state, Champlain Valley School District, which includes residents of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George and Williston, rejected a Town Meeting Day budget that would have raised homestead property taxes anywhere from 21% to 30% in the district’s towns.

In response, the Champlain Valley board trimmed $5 million from the initial proposal, including 42 full-time equivalent positions. That lowered property tax increases to between 10% and 18%, according to information provided by the district. 

A second budget passed overwhelmingly this week, a day after students in Hinesburg walked out of class, urging people to ‘vote yes’ on Tuesday’s budget.