What to know about the GMUSD budget re-vote

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

In a  little less than a week, residents of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester will get a second chance to vote on the proposed budget of the Green Mountain Unified School District. The district runs two elementary schools and a single high/middle school. On March 3, voters rejected a $19.3 million budget by 37 votes out of 1,013 cast.

The district is obliged by state law to continue submitting budgets to its voters until one passes. If there is no budget in place by June 30, the state will allow the district to borrow up to the 87 percent of the previous year’s budget

Subsequently, the GMUSD board met to decide whether to re-submit the original budget to voters or to make cuts. At its April 16 meeting, the board decided to do the former as well as to do a better job of making the case for the budget as is.

However, the board had already covered its bases when, at an earlier meeting, it agreed to issue notices of “reduction of force.” Such notices allow the district to let staff and faculty members go if the budget doesn’t pass and cuts need to be made. Two River Supervisory Union Superintendent Layne Millington explained the problem as having a number of contracts that you may not have the money to pay.

The RIFs entered deeply into the board’s decision to resubmit the original budget, with several members noting that the only way to keep the current staff would be to pass that spending plan.

Level services vs. level funding

At board meetings and public forums, Millington has made a point of saying that this budget does not add anything new to the services the district is providing. In other words, everything in the current school budget is in the proposed budget but costs $714,319 more. In meeting after meeting, he has noted that that represents a 3.84 percent increase, which remains less than the state average increase of 4.2 percent.

Level funding the budget — keeping the amount to spend in the 2026-27 school year the same as the 2025-26 school year — would then require a cut $714,319, leading to the staff cuts. Millington estimated that would cut nine staff members.

Everybody into the pool

The superintendent reminded board members that state funding comes from a pool and that substantial cuts in the budget will result in minor reductions in taxes. In a letter to the “GMUSD Community,” which appeared on the TRSU website shortly after the Town Meeting Day defeat of the budget, Millington wrote:

“In basic terms, the state totals the cost of all school budgets across Vermont and divides that cost among all taxpayers… so we are all paying for the cost of running all the state’s school districts.   As a result, when we reduce our district’s budget, the savings are spread statewide, which means you may see only a tiny decrease in your own local tax bill.” Millington also explains how the Common Level of Assessment, which is designed to equalize property values across the state by comparing assessed values with current market values results in vastly different tax rates from town to town based on when towns were last assessed.

Unfortunately this can mean that voters are using the ballot to protest the school financing system and potentially hurting the students and staff of the local schools. Millington also said that the state has mandated that school districts state the percentage increase in cost per pupil on the ballot. But the new formula makes the increase seem higher than it is. For example, using the method for calculating percent of increase used in the past the district’s budget is up 3.84 percent. Using the state’s new calculation the same budget amount is an increase of 9.98 percent.

The board discussed the vote, concluding that voters were angry with the state funding system, but that ends up hurting GM students. In deciding to resubmit the current $19 million budget for a second vote, members agreed they (and the school district) would have to put out a better, more convincing message and get it out to voters.

But as of May 5, The Telegraph has received no information from the district or supervisory union and no letters to the editor from members of the board. Near the end of the May 5 information meeting Millington told the board that he would be getting information to them tomorrow to help with getting the word out. He suggested social media.

At the information meeting on May 5, Board member Anne Henshaw said there would be a meeting – a conversation – about the re-vote at 11:30 a.m. on May 9 at Chester Town Hall, 556 Elm St.

Voting will be held on Tuesday, May 12, at the following polling places:

• Andover Town Hall, 953 Weston-Andover Road – 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Baltimore Town Hall, 1902 Baltimore Road – 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Proctorsville Fire Station (for Cavendish), 513 Main St. – 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Chester Town Hall, 556 Elm St. – 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.