Alburgh voters defeat local school budget, approve all other articlesBy MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer ALBURGH – Voters in Grand Isle County’s northernmost town opposed their local school district’s proposed spending plan and supported all other articles during Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections, according to preliminary results shared earlier this week. According to preliminary results, voters only narrowly opposed the Alburgh Town School District’s proposed $8 million spending plan, voting 156-to-172 against the district’s budget proposal for funding Alburgh’s elementary and middle school, and affording tuition payments for local students attending high school classes in another district. Voters did approve, however, a second measure allowing Alburgh’s school district to apply an estimated $800,000 surplus to its school budget, reducing the amount school officials needed to raise through local education taxes and, ultimately, lowering their proposed spending plan’s tax impact. That article passed by a 203- to 126-vote margin. Alburgh voters also approved all other articles on their Town Meeting Day ballot, including Alburgh’s municipal and highway budgets, as well as funding allocations for the Alburgh Volunteer Fire Department and Alburgh Rescue. Voters also approved exempting the Alburgh Family Clubhouse’s planned child care center from local property taxes. Selectpersons Russell Duchaine and Jim Hokenberg, and school directors Heather Darby and Cheryl Dunn were each reelected during Tuesday’s elections in four individual uncontested races. It was immediately unclear how Alburgh school officials might revise their district’s spending plan following Tuesday’s defeat. During Monday’s annual informational meeting at the Alburgh Community Education Center, school officials said they had approached their spending plan conservatively to “lower costs where [they] could.” “I think there’s a lot of forward thinking in this budget,” the Alburgh school board’s Luke Richter told the audience. “We tried really hard to lower costs where we could.” The Alburgh school district’s board of directors will likely take up discussion around a new budget proposal when the board reorganizes later this month. 
No battles in Isle La Motte;
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Grand Isle rejects appointing
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2024
Alburgh opts for newcomers in selectboard, school board races
By MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer ALBURGH – Both Alburgh’s selectboard and its school board will see some turnover following Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections after local voters favored newcomers in contested races for seats on both governing bodies. At the school board level, Alburgh voters agreed Tuesday to elect challengers Luke Richter and Jennifer Fenn over incumbent Ryan Latimer and the school board’s current chairperson Michael Savage, respectively, in a pair of contested races. Voters also narrowly elected Alex McCracken, a newcomer who served on the town’s American Rescue Plan Act committee and notably works with his opponent on the nonprofit overseeing Alburgh’s Totality Festival, to Alburgh’s selectboard over incumbent and former selectboard chair Jim Hokenberg, with voters favoring the former by only 25 votes. Damien Henry, meanwhile, will also join Alburgh’s selectboard after winning a contested race against Jayson Martin to replace Donna Boumil on the board. Boumil, who will still serve on the town’s planning commission and was elected Tuesday to serve as a lister, had opted against seeking reelection to the town’s selectboard this year. Like their counterparts across a number of towns in the Champlain Valley, Alburgh voters rejected their town school district’s proposed education budget, voting 330 to 229 against a nearly $8.9 million budget brought by school officials that, according to the Grand Isle Supervisory Union, was expected to increase local education taxes to roughly $1.87 for every $100 of assessed property value. While recent reforms to Vermont’s education funding formula were expected to benefit Alburgh in the long run, a ratio used in that formula weighing assessed property values was set to surge education taxes in Alburgh this year, the likely result of a hot real estate market and ongoing housing shortage helping spike property prices well above their assessed values. Aside from the Alburgh school district’s proposed budget, however, all other items brought before Alburgh voters passed during Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections, including the town’s $947,000 municipal budget, its $1.1 million highway budget and individual allocations earmarked for both the Alburgh Volunteer Fire Department and Alburgh Rescue. According to results shared Tuesday evening by the Town of Alburgh’s government, 575 voters cast ballots in Alburgh’s Town Meeting Day elections. |
All articles pass during Grand Isle electionsBy MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer GRAND ISLE – In local elections that saw little in the way of contested elections, Grand Isle voters approved all items that came before them on the town’s Town Meeting Day ballot Tuesday. According to preliminary results shared with The Islander, Susan Lawrence was reelected to Grand Isle’s cemetery commission in what was one of only two contested elections in the Champlain Islands town. In the day’s only other contested race, Suzanne Sauvé was also elected to the town’s cemetery commission. Lawrence and Sauvé defeated Jake St. Pierre and David Leake, respectively. Notably, the makeup of the town’s selectboard and school board was set to change after Town Meeting Day, with former selectboard chair Ronnie Bushway set to return to Grand Isle’s selectboard following an uncontested race and Deborah Lang elected to represent Grand Isle on the Champlain Islands Unified Union School District (CIUUSD)’s governing school board. All other articles passed in Grand Isle on Tuesday, including the town’s proposed $1.1 million operating budget, funding for the town’s highway department, its recreation commission and its library, and a suite of individual articles totaling to around $270,000 in proposed funding for the Grand Isle Volunteer Fire Department and Grand Isle Rescue. 
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NO RESULTS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED AT THIS TIME.
North Hero reelects selectboard members, approves all items
By MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer NORTH HERO – North Hero voters hitting the polls during Tuesday’s elections swung behind incumbent selectboard members and approved each of the funding requests meeting voters on a Town Meeting Day ballot, according to preliminary results shared Tuesday. Three members of North Hero’s selectboard – Tim Bourne, Joe Latimer and Harry Parker – each staved off challengers during Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections to remain on the board. Parker, the selectboard’s chair until a mid-year reorganization last year, won after facing a challenge Tuesday from Jim Martin, the town’s former highway foreman and himself a former selectperson. Bourne, meanwhile, staved off a challenge Tuesday from North Hero planning commissioner and former selectperson Andre Quintin, while Latimer, the selectboard’s current vice chair, was reelected after facing a write-in campaign from Rose Cheeseman. Voters also approved all articles and spending requests included on North Hero’s Town Meeting Day ballots, including the town’s proposed $722,000 municipal budget and its $411,000 public works budget, capital funding designated for both North Hero’s library and the town’s cemetery commission, and the allocation of surplus funding to a capital budget for supporting the construction of a new town garage. Notably, Corinn Julow, the town’s clerk and treasurer before Tuesday, ran only to serve as clerk this year after North Hero officials approved budgeting for more robust clerk and treasurer’s roles in an attempt to better organize North Hero’s town offices. Lisa Keyworth, previously the town’s assistant clerk and treasurer, will take over as North Hero’s town treasurer after running unopposed Tuesday. According to preliminary results shared with The Islander, 452 of North Hero’s 922 registered voters participated in Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections. |
Milton defeats school budget, adds Duquette, O’Brien to school board
By MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer MILTON – Newcomers Allison Duquette and Scott O’Brien will be joining Milton’s school board alongside a returning Karen Stout after the two won a pair of contested races during Town Meeting Day elections that also saw three Milton selectpersons reelected and the town’s school budget fail. Stout, the Milton school trustees’ current vice chair, was narrowly reelected to the school board Tuesday, fending off a challenge from Nathan Steady for a three-year seat that, until Tuesday, had been held by outgoing trustee Jennifer Wilson, according to preliminary results shared Tuesday evening. Voters also defeated the Milton school district’s proposed budget, according to preliminary Town Meeting Day results, adding Milton to a growing list of Vermont communities where voters, discouraged by climbing property taxes spurred largely by inflated education costs and nuances in how local education taxes are calculated in Vermont, turned down their local public school systems’ budgets. According to the Milton Town School District, the district’s proposed school budget would have roughly totaled $37.2 million and was projected to likely increase the town’s education tax rate by around 15.4% following recent updates to a Vermont law reforming how local education taxes are calculated in the Green Mountain State. Duquette, according to Tuesday’s results, will be taking a two-year seat on the town’s school board previously held by Stout after defeating both fellow challenger Ember Nova Quinn and incumbent school trustee Melinda Young who, until Tuesday, had held a one-year seat on the Milton school board. The one-year school board term previously occupied by Young, meanwhile, now falls to O’Brien, who, according to Tuesday’s results, defeated challenger and former school trustee Emily Hecker in a contested race after Young opted instead to run for the school board’s two-year seat. Milton selectpersons Darren Adams, Leland Morgan and Michael Morgan were each reelected to the town’s selectboard. Adams and Leland Morgan were both elected to one-year seats also contested by Lonnie Poland and Nova Quinn, and Michael Morgan defeated challenger Lauren Blume to guarantee his reelection to a three-year term on the board. Voters in Milton also narrowly approved the town’s $10 million municipal budget and, in a contested race, elected Jennifer Taylor over Willow Longo to replace outgoing trustee Tracy Hughes on the Milton Public Library’s board of trustees. Nearly 3,000 people voted in Milton’s municipal and school elections this year, according to preliminary results shared with The Islander. |
South Hero voters reject local school budget, reelect Brown
By MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer SOUTH HERO – Voters in Grand Isle County’s southernmost town sunk their school district’s proposed budget Tuesday, joining a number of nearby communities in opposing local school budgets expected to swell education taxes for reasons ranging from inflated education costs to local property values. According to preliminary results shared with The Islander, South Hero voters defeated their school district’s nearly $5.4 million education budget during Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections. According to the Grand Isle Supervisory Union, South Hero’s education taxes, like those in a number of Champlain Valley communities, were set to swell this year due largely to what state officials call a “common level of appraisal,” a ratio used to determine local education taxes that compares assessed property values to their actual sales price. The district was also absorbing a greater amount of special education costs following reforms in how special education is funded statewide, and, according to school officials, South Hero had to also contend with other challenges like inflated health insurance costs and climbing tuition rates paid to send South Hero students to high schools outside of the Champlain Islands. In a contested race to decide who would serve as the South Hero school district’s treasurer, Jonathan Shaw defeated local farmer Bob Fireovid, according to results shared Tuesday. Shaw was also elected Tuesday to serve as the school district’s clerk, taking the role from incumbent school district clerk and current South Hero town clerk Naomi King in an uncontested election. Outside of the town’s school district, a contested race for the South Hero selectboard saw Ross Brown, the board’s incumbent vice chair, reelected after facing a challenge from local farmer Joan Falcao. David Lane, the co-owner of South Hero’s Snow Farm Vineyard and Winery, will join South Hero’s selectboard after Tuesday’s elections, having been elected to the board in an uncontested race to replace selectperson Chuck Hulse after the latter opted against seeking reelection. All other Town Meeting Day items warned between the school district and town government, including South Hero’s $1.5 million municipal budget and its nearly $1 million highway department budget, passed Tuesday, according to results shared by the town clerk’s office. |
Island voters defeat CIUUSD school budget
By MICHAEL FRETT
Islander Staff Writer GRAND ISLE – Voters in the consolidated Champlain Islands Unified Union School District (CIUUSD) rejected their school district’s $10.4 million education budget during Town Meeting Day’s elections Tuesday, according to preliminary results posted by the school district. According to the school district’s election officials, 735 ballots had been cast between CIUUSD’s three member towns against the district’s proposed budget, while only 562 ballots cast during Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day elections supported the district’s budget proposal. Voters from CIUUSD’s three towns also only narrowly approved a measure allowing the district’s school board to borrow funding in anticipation of taxes, an item that, once approved, allows local school officials to legally afford operations while awaiting eventual tax revenue that is typically approved with little issue by Town Meeting Day voters. That measure, according to CIUUSD’s preliminary results, passed by only 55 votes on Tuesday. CIUUSD, which oversees public education for children from Grand Isle, Isle La Motte and North Hero, is far from the only school district in Vermont to see its proposed school budget fall. Neighboring districts in the Champlain Islands also saw proposed school budgets fail Tuesday amid an expected surge in local property taxes prompted as school districts wrestle with inflated education costs and reforms to state programs for determining local tax rates and administering special education funds. According to the Grand Isle Supervisory Union, the common level of appraisal, a ratio weighing assessed and real property values in a given town used by state officials to determine local education taxes in Vermont, was also expected to surge local education taxes in each of CIUUSD’s three communities. In Grand Isle on Tuesday, voters agreed to elect newcomer Deborah Lang in an uncontested election to represent the town on CIUUSD’s school board. According to preliminary results shared with The Islander, 1,311 ballots in all were cast during CIUUSD’s Town Meeting Day elections. |