School Board Budget Increases Coming to St. Johnsbury

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Created on Thursday, 20 February 2014 20:42
Written by Ron Kauffman

ST J SCHOOL BUDGETST. JOHNSBURY- The St. Johnsbury School Board released their newest budget for the district. The budget is just under $16 million and is a 5.8% increase from last year.

 

 This rise in the budget will increase the taxes for St. Johnsbury residents, who hold claim to the lowest tax rate in Caledonia County. The increase is only 12 cents, bringing the tax rate to $1.23 for St. Johnsbury residents. This means for the average $150,000 household the tax increase would be $184.

 

Superintendent Dr. Margaret Bledsoe explained that this increase is mostly from the Vermont state mandated tax increase and from the St. Johnsbury Academy tuition increase. Of this 5.8% increase only 31% of that is from the PreK-8 program from the St. Johnsbury School.

The St. Johnsbury Academy budget increase takes up 41%, and the mandatory Vermont education increase takes up the final 28% of the total rise. This is added to the fact that the St. Johnsbury School District budget only increased 1% for the past 5 years, well below average inflation for the state.

Dr. Bledsoe said that people in St. Johnsbury need to remember that the school district needs to pay for the mandated state tax increase and for the high school tuition increase, meaning that if the voters do not pass this new budget it will greatly affect the PreK-8 program. The 5.8% difference would need to come out of the PreK-8 budget "leading to a drastic reduction of services".

Voters will get a chance to vote on the new school budget on March 4th.