Below are the suggestions and questions submitted by our serving community. These submissions were collected through local drop boxes or via the electronic form available at https://bit.ly/FY26Suggestions. Please check back regularly for updates as additional submissions and responses are added.

1) Submitted by a Fair Haven Resident: The constant revotes until you got the answer you wanted is not democracy. Using scare tactics and cutting necessary services to prove a point is terrible. Also, proficiency based learning is teaching our kids to do just enough to pass. There is no striving for better with this type of grading. It is setting our children up for failure in college and beyond. Last thing… move the bowling trophy to the front.

Response: Thank you for sharing your concerns. It’s clear that district school budget voting is a deeply personal topic that impacts whole communities. On the issue of revotes, it’s understandable why people might see repeated voting as an erosion of the democratic process. While proponents may argue that revotes ensure all voices are heard, too many of them can feel like an attempt to force through a particular outcome. But in reality, your school board is simply following Vermont Statute which reads: 

“Budget adoption process: The budget proposal shall be submitted to the electorate at the annual election. If this proposal fails, the School Board shall warn another election at which a revised budget shall be submitted to the voters and decided by Australian ballot. If the School Board’s second or subsequent budget proposals fail, the Board shall continue to warn special elections and submit revised budget proposals to the voters until a budget is adopted by the voters by Australian ballot.”

As for the use of “scare tactics” or the threat of cutting essential services, this would indeed be a troubling approach if truly done. The Slate Valley Unified Union School Board, works closely with the district’s administration, to carefully present a fiscally responsible budget to its community. When the board goes back to revise the budget because of a revote, they need to look for potential deeper cuts and savings. Communicating to the public what the deeper cuts may be is never intended as “scare tactics”, but as a measure of transparency. The board’s focus is keeping core services intact and finding creative solutions to preserve what matters most to students and families. The initial budget is presented with the high hopes that no deeper cuts will have to occur.

Regarding proficiency-based learning (PBL), its intent is to help students master essential skills at their own pace. However, your concerns are valid: PBL can sometimes unintentionally emphasize meeting the standard rather than exceeding the standard and achieving academic excellence. For PBL, and proficiency-based grading to succeed, it needs strong support and clear expectations to ensure it challenges students to achieve their best, rather than simply meeting the baseline.

In response to these concerns, the school board formed an ad-hoc grading committee this fall to discuss PBL and proficiency-based grading. This committee regularly reports to the board, and their agendas and minutes are available on our website for public review. Engaging in this process allows community members to stay informed and contribute to shaping an educational approach that benefits all students.

Lastly, we couldn’t be prouder of the two state champion bowling trophies displayed in our case—and we’re hopeful to add a third this year!

2) Submitted by Fair Haven Resident: Put a FREEZE on the administration salary! Pay the workers what they deserve instead of padding Brooke’s pockets.

3) Submitted by Fair Haven Resident: Too top heavy! The district needs to impress on state that this is a house of cards - Kids are paying a price for the Administration’s fat.

4) Submitted by Fair Haven Resident: You are too admin. Heavy! Cut there, not programs for students.

5) Submitted by Hubbardton Resident: Value added, the administration costs are TOO HIGH for the lack of academic results. Teach math and finance, these are life skills!

Response: As I look back on my childhood in Castleton and the caring and kind community I was a part of, thirty years later, I can see the changes in education as my children attended school in the same community. It was frustrating to see the changes and not understand why education has changed in some ways and stayed the same in others. As our student population has declined, the mandates from the state and federal governments have grown. This has put a lot more responsibility on all of our employees. This being said, one of the items we look at every year in the finance committee is the distribution of work at the administration level, and we compare ourselves to the surrounding districts. This comparison is linked here. The result of this comparison is that we are not overstaffed. We have the lowest number of central office administrators and the second to lowest support staff. Put that all together, and we have one of the highest central office staff-to-student ratios in the region. The same is true for salaries. All of our central office staff are in the lower half of the surrounding salaries except our Special Services position, which is partially grant-funded and is the most experienced in the state. We are also the only district that combines facilities and technology into one position. As a whole, we are staffed appropriately for the workload expected and the impact on our budget.

Here is the hard part. How do you retain quality personnel when there is a nationwide shortage of education professionals? As school board members, we ask ourselves this important question every budget year as we aim to provide the best education possible at the most efficient cost. If we cannot find employees to fill positions at all levels, how can we accomplish this goal? How do we attract talented young teaching professionals? How do we ensure we are following the law and working appropriately with the union to negotiate fair salaries within the parameters of our budget? These are just a few of the many questions that school boards are thinking about when they are working with and hiring employees, as well as developing the annual budget. This directly translates into competitive salaries as it is not prudent to have to rehire staff yearly. As you can see if you click the link above, our conservative district has worked hard to retain qualified employees at reasonable salaries. If you look at the starting salary for our teachers, $48,170.00, you can also see that we are fair yet competitive. If you would like to see our pay schedule for either professional or staff salaries, please reach out to the central office.

As a district, we share our thoughts with the state regularly. Our superintendent is one of the more senior superintendents in the state, so her opinion is valued at the state level. That being said, the message that we sent to our state government during this election cycle seems to have been heard. I am hopeful that a positive change in our education funding system is on the way. As the conversation at the state level begins, consolidation is at the top of the list. A recent report linked here shares an analysis of what Vermont could do better to provide quality education for a reasonable price. Until the state makes some changes, we need to continue to work the best we can with our current framework. Lastly, we have seen some fantastic academic growth in our students in the past years. Please see next reply.