BRATTLEBORO-With a back-up bullhorn in place and a patient crowd, a power outage didn’t much faze annual meeting attendees at Brattleboro Union High School on March 17 as they voted to approve the Windham Southeast School District’s (WSESD) proposed fiscal year 2027 operating budget of $69.9 million.
The budget represents estimated per-pupil spending at $15,972 — 0.8% higher than the current year.
Finance Committee Chair Ruby McAdoo noted an overall 2.6% budget increase to this year despite an anticipated rise in health insurance of about 7%, an expense that accounts for 13% of the total budget.
Saying the budget is responsive to student needs and minimally impactful on tax rates, McAdoo said it also reflects the district’s continuous improvement goals, including increasing math and literacy achievement by 10%, improving graduation rates, and increasing students’ “sense of belonging” by 10% over this year’s measure.
“This budget, we believe, is our district’s best effort to move forward in a way that we can afford and also to meet our goals,” McAdoo said.
Some expressed skepticism about achieving repeated 10% improvement targets and cautioned against lowering standards to raise graduation rates.
“I don’t want you watering down the education in order to get the graduation rates up,” said former WSESD Board Member Jody Normandeau, who has been vocal about not supporting the renovations to the Tenney Field grandstand. “I want it to be true that these kids are really learning and really getting what we’re trying to teach them.”
The budget reflects a reduction of nine positions, for a savings about $800,000, that came about following community input.
Some members of the public in attendance viewed keeping the overall budget increase under 3% as responsible.
Others believed another $400,000 to $500,000 should have been cut. They expressed concerns over spending priorities, noting grandstand repairs at Tenney Field versus academics.
“There were too many missed opportunities,” said community member Martha Noyes of Brattleboro, who borrowed a light from Moderator Steven Brown so she could read a statement.
“Members of our communities are struggling to make ends meet, are struggling to recreate their monthly budgets, and still struggling to pay their property taxes,” Noyes said, noting the board, in her view, had several chances to make cuts and revisions and did not take or make them. “All people here are facing increasing costs of living.”
It was also noted that Act 73 may shift to a regional funding formula around FY29 or FY30, reducing direct tuition transactions. Current out-of-district tuition is $20,000 under state law through FY29.
Other meeting notes
• Rucker commended: During the meeting, Business Administrator Frank Rucker, who is set to retire at the end of December, was commended for his work and final annual meeting after 13 years of service.
• Marlboro School vote: Also discussed was the pending Marlboro School closing following a Town Meeting vote to do so due to declining enrollment.
Superintendent Mark Speno said he’s reached out to Marlboro families and there will be an open house at Marlboro School with WSESD administration attending on Wednesday, April 1.
•Directors’ compensation: Voters also approved compensation for WSESD board directors at $7,000 each and $9,000 for the chair annually, totaling $72,000 for the entire board.
• Democracy in action: Attendance, which was read into the minutes, was as follows at the annual meeting: Brattleboro voters: 78 of 9,096 voters (0.86%); Dummerston voters: 18 of 1,593 (1.13%); Guilford voters: 20 of 1,875 (1.07%); and Putney voters: 11 of 2,048 (0.54%).
Total votes cast were 127 of 14,612 (0.87%).
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.