CHESTER, Vt. – During their Jan. 20 meeting, the Green Mountain Unified School District approved their FY23 budget, district support staff agreement, postponed their annual meeting date, and got the latest update on how the district is faring under the statewide change in school Covid testing.
The board approved the total of $14,705,015, which represents a 3.26 percent increase and an anticipated tax rate of $1.45. The cost per equalized pupil is $18,770, which is approximately $1200 under the state threshold of $19,997. Districts that go over the state threshold face penalties.
The GMUSD budget covers Cavendish Town Elementary School, Chester Andover Elementary School and Green Mountain Union Middle/High School for the towns of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish, and Chester. The budget can be found on the Two Rivers Supervisory Union website at www.trsu.org.
All towns will be voting by Australian Ballot on Tuesday, March 1: Andover voting will take place at Andover Town Hall from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Baltimore voting will take place at Baltimore Town Office from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Cavendish voting will take place at the Proctorsville Fire Station from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.; and Chester voting will take place at the Chester Town Office from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.
The informational meeting for the budget is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. via Zoom. Board chairman Joe Fromberger will be onsite at the GMUHS library along with Okemo Valley TV to coordinate the broadcast. The Zoom information will be available on the TRSU website.
As they did last year, the board decided to postpone their annual meeting until Thursday, May 26 and will hold the meeting outside to mitigate the spread of Covid. This meeting, which generally is not largely attended, consists mainly of electing positions to the board such as clerk and treasurer, but does not include any budget decisions.
Only board member Abe Gross voted against delay, citing the high vaccination rate in Vermont and that with schools being in-person, it was inconsistent with how the district itself was operating.
The board unanimously approved the Support Staff agreement, which was negotiated for the upcoming two years. The first year would provide a 4.97% increase; the second year would deliver a 2.27% bump. The agreement also included increased service days, changes to accrued sick leave for new hires, custodial staff reimbursement for footwear, and in-service stipends. The first year’s nearly 5% jump reflected the other changes.
Superintendent Lauren Fierman gave an update on the recent decision handed down from the Vermont Agency of Education to shift testing responsibility from the school to parents.
Although Fierman said she was glad to have administrators backing away from acting as health officials, she said it was hard to manage the changes, and the new directive was largely driven, and hindered by, the supply of take-home test kits that each school received.
If vaccinated or unvaccinated students or staff test positive, they need to isolate for five days and can return to school on day six if they’ve had two negative rapid tests day four, and five, then can return to school on day six.
Contact tracing is no longer happening; rather a positive case now triggers the entire classroom as a presumptive contact. If unvaccinated, students/staff must take a rapid test every day with a negative result to come to school. Vaccinated students, if asymptomatic, can come to school and are not required to test.
The school is now supplying those rapid tests to families once their course of action is determined, either providing five tests for unvaccinated students, or two tests for those returning after illness.
According to Fierman, if they run out of tests, supply from the state being the biggest hurdle, then the school will have to either revert back to school driven testing or close a class. She said the rapid tests the schools are receiving are no longer packaged for schools to conduct testing, but designed to be taken home.
When asked how the teachers were reacting to the change, Fierman said many were concerned that parents might not conduct testing that is recommended and the school is not allowed to monitor adherence from parents.
Admitting that this might not have been her direction, Fierman said that as she has from the start followed the recommendations of the AOE and the health department and that she would continue to do so. She also said the state’s rationale for the shift was driven by the fast spread of Omicron variant.
Staffing shortages have been an issue, but many staffers and administrators have been going above and beyond to cover where needed. Going remote is not an option however, since the state will not recognize remote learning as part of the necessary days required for school instruction. Fierman said they were going to do everything we can to stay open and continue with in-person learning. They could however, request a waiver from the state, to not have to make up a shortage of learning days.
Board member Abe Gross informed the board that he had filled out his paperwork for the 3-year Cavendish position available on the board but had not yet submitted it to the town office. He made a plea to any Cavendish resident who might be interested in the position in his stead. After the meeting, Gross confirmed that he had submitted his paperwork and would be officially running for the 3-year term.
The next GMUSD regular meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. at the GMUHS library or via Zoom.