MVSU Approves FY27 $32.5M Budget, Increasing Just 5.5% Despite High Healthcare, Wage, and Tariff-Driven Supplies Costs

The Mountain Views Supervisory Union (MVSU) Board of Directors voted Monday evening to approve a proposed FY27 budget request of $32,496,506.00, up 5.5% from the previous year. Proposed net education spending -- the amount upon which taxes will be calculated if the budget passes in March-- stands at $26,875,206, or 6.7% higher than FY26.

Net education spending is calculated by removing offsetting (or local) revenues from the total budget request. Such revenues consist of fund balance carryovers and State funds for special education.

The comparatively moderate increases from the previous year come despite rises in State healthcare costs of 7.4%; contractual wages for staff and teachers of 6%; and supplies costs of 16%, driven up sharply by tariffs. Healthcare and wages represent about 80% of the total budget.

Matt Stout, Chairman of the MVSU Finance Committee, said net education spending is also facing upward pressure due to an increase in Pre-Kindergarten students, whose per-pupil spending is not fully reimbursed by the state. Additionally, fewer students have chosen to tuition into the MVSU district. However, he noted that today’s larger Pre-K classes will actually help budgeting in future years as these students grow into higher-funded school grades.

Additional savings in the FY27 budget “are a result of MVSU’s decision not to increase headcount or offer new programs in the 2026-27 school year and disciplined negotiation of collective-bargaining agreements,” said Stout. “Ongoing savings are also a result of reductions in staff and school expenditures made in the FY26 budgeting process that are carrying over and having the full year impact of seven removed full-time positions.”

He emphasized that the MVSU Board has worked to maintain current offerings. “We’ve tried to keep in place the extracurriculars, the AP [classes], the arts...we were able to make certain reductions, but we’re not able to go any further without support of the public.”

Per Pupil Spend Will Depend on Legislative Action

Because legislators voting to pass the Act 73 education reform bill this past July 1, 2025, failed to remove a clause coupling the cost of capital debt with the amount of money allowed by Vermont for per-pupil spend, FY27 per-pupil spend is calculated at a new “raw” amount of $18,101.56 -- up $981.61 over Vermont’s $16,470 per-pupil threshold and also a 5.1% increase year-over-year. To arrive at the actual amount needed to fund the FY27 budget, the adjusted number ($18,101.56 + $981.61) comes to $19,083.17 actually required.

MVSU is currently working with legislators including State Senator Alison Clarkson and State Rep. Charlie Kimbell to introduce legislation in January to decouple school capital spending from per-pupil spending. Without such legislation, MVSU taxpayers will be forced to pay $2 for every $1 that goes over the threshold, seriously threatening the school district’s urgent need to finance the construction of a new high school.

Failure to decouple such costs will also negatively affect the cost of financing critically needed repairs at the existing high school and middle school in Woodstock. Just last month, MVSU reported the breakdown of a 70-year-old boiler needed to heat the high school. Just last week, Superintendent Sherry Sousa announced that the septic system serving the gymnasium and adjacent locker rooms has failed, leaving toilets on the gym side of the building nonfunctional.

Apples to Apples

On December 1st of each year, as stipulated by Vermont’s “Mandated Forecast” Statute, the Vermont Tax Department issues a projected Homestead Property Yield dollar amount that is based on the reserves and income estimated in the Vermont Education Fund and forecasted school budgets across the state. For FY27, Vermont issued a Homestead Property Yield of $8,849, up 3.7%.

The actual Equalized Tax Rate -- the amount used to generate the final Homestead Tax Rate after calculation known as the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) -- is calculated by dividing the adjusted per pupil spend amount ($19,083.17) by the Homestead Property yield, which results in an FY27 Equalized Tax Rate of $2.1565 -- a relatively small 3% increase -- before CLA calculations. This number -- in an apples-to apples comparison -- can be directly compared to Vermont’s December 1 “mandated forecast,’ which this year stands at 12%. The State knows that percentage is high.

“As part of an administration deeply committed to making Vermont a more affordable place to live and work, I have predictably bad news to report,” wrote Commissioner of Vermont Department of Taxes William C. Shouldice in his December 1st letter. “After completing the calculations required...the Department of Taxes forecasts an unacceptable 12% average increase to Vermont property taxes next year.”

Whether the State-mandated CLA calculation results in lower or higher tax rates in each of the 8 individual MVSU member towns, the final Homestead Tax Rate after CLA is intended to adjust for any difference between the town’s assessed property value from the time of the last re-appraisal and its current market value. No part of a school district’s budgeting process has any impact on the CLA calculation or the final Homestead Tax Rate for any town. However, the final calculated tax rate, after CLA, has the greatest impact on most taxpayers in the MVSU communities.

“I believe that the MVSU principals, directors, and school board members have worked hard to offer a budget that is responsive to the needs of our students and reflects the affordability concerns of our community members,” said Sherry Sousa, Superintendent, MVSU. “While the Governor states that public schools are making property taxes skyrocket, I would counter that the misuse of the Education Fund for non-educational needs, uncontained health costs, and current levels of appraisal for primary homeowners are creating an impossible property tax situation for Vermonters.