Just weeks after Vermont students returned to school, district administrators and Gov. Phil Scott are raising the alarm about rising costs that could cause budgets and property taxes to soar — again — next year.

In a letter sent on Monday to school leaders, Scott noted that the tax commissioner typically forecasts property tax increases related to education spending in a memo that's known as the "December 1 letter." But after an unprecedented school budget season — during which one-third of spending plans failed on Town Meeting Day — the governor said he wanted to reach out to school leaders even earlier "to help avoid another round of historic property tax increases next year."


In his letter, Scott encouraged school boards "to consider all options to contain education spending growth" this year, but he did not provide recommendations. Instead, he encouraged superintendents and school business managers to contact the Agency of Education for technical support.
Scott referenced a memo that went out to local school officials last month from the Vermont School Boards Association, Vermont Superintendents Association and Vermont Association of School Business Officials. That document laid out, in more detail, the factors driving up education costs, including staff salaries and benefits, inflation, special education, facilities maintenance, and tuition payments to private schools.



It warned that "Vermont cannot endure" another budget cycle like the one this past year.

"Without successful efforts to significantly reduce the rate of increase in school district spending proposals ... more budgets could fail, leading to statewide proposals designed to suppress spending rather than address costs," the memo said. "This would likely result in increased disparities in education funding across the state."
Some school districts, too, are already prepping for another budget crunch. In an email to faculty and staff on Monday, Adam Bunting, interim superintendent of the Champlain Valley School District, noted that the district cut 42 full-time positions this school year — and residents' property taxes still rose substantially. In order to maintain the current level of services for next year, he wrote, the district would likely have to increase its budget by more than $5 million. Bunting said he was reaching out to engage the community in how to navigate the "extraordinary fiscal headwinds."

South Burlington superintendent Violet Nichols, in a written statement submitted to the Commission on the Future of Public Education, said her district was "alarmed" as it begins budget modeling for next fiscal year.

Last school year, the district applied a $3.2 million surplus to its budget in order to get property tax rate increases down to around 8 percent. But there is no surplus to draw from this year. And, she wrote, the district is anticipating it may have to "drastically cut staffing and programming levels" to achieve a budget that would get voter approval.

"As longer-term solutions are still conceptual," Nichols wrote, "we also need to take direct actions in advance of the FY26 budget development cycle which is already in full force as the doors open for another school year."