Hello EWSD Community,
Last night, the Board adopted a revised budget upon which the community will vote on May 7th. Our Board put in a huge effort to both gather community feedback while also ensuring a quick turnaround time for our community to re-vote. As a Board, we take with the utmost seriousness our responsibility to bring forth a school budget to reflect and balance the needs of our community.
Over the past two weeks, the Board connected with our community through in-person and virtual meetings, reviewing every email sent to us, and intentionally talking with taxpayers, teachers, staff, students, and parents. We gathered input to create a revised school budget to reflect the needs of taxpayers. Through this process, we identified priorities and provided guidance to our administration to direct budget revisions.
Our administration then spent significant hours to turn around revisions quickly per Board request. This has been an intensive, all-hands-on-deck, team effort and truly reflects the massive thought and care of the Board, administration, and the community.
The revised budget reflects a 4.5 million dollar reduction. For a detailed review, see the recorded April 23rd meeting and slide deck presentation.
Directly reflecting community feedback, the guidance from the Board to the administration included:
Maintain high-quality teaching and learning throughout EWSD
Maximize whatever is in the District’s control to provide relief to EWSD taxpayers
Where possible, utilize attrition and vacant positions to minimize the impact on employees who work directly with students
Reduce District Office administrators and staff
Maintain investments in fine arts, AP courses, Honors, athletics, co-curricular, and student registration choices
Focus on continuous improvement in the areas of math, literacy, SEL, and equity across our Pre K-12 continuum
Strengthen the newly implemented Response To Intervention (RTI) framework and practices to support teachers
Continue with mental health supports for students in every school
Identify topics that require longer-term study and community engagement for future year consideration such as facilities, school consolidation and transportation as we look into strategic changes over the next 5-10 years
The Board has now adopted the revised budget. Our next critical dates are:
April 30th Informational Meeting 6:30-8:00 PM, EHS Library Board Meeting
This meeting will cover details of the budget for the public to be informed before the vote on May 7th. Public comment begins at 6:30 PM, the informational part of the meeting will begin at 7pm. This meeting will be live-streamed for those who are unable to attend via Media Factory.
Voter Information May 7th:
Vote in-person at your designated location below or by absentee ballot. Please contact your local clerk to obtain an absentee ballot. In-person voting will be held from 7:00 am - 7:00 pm at the designated polling locations:
Town of Essex: Essex Middle School in the Town of Essex
Town of Westford: Westford School in the Town of Westford
City of Essex Junction: Champlain Valley Expo Blue Ribbon Pavilion in the City of Essex Junction
For more information on voting and absentee ballots for each municipality:
As we shared at the beginning of this process, our Board is so grateful for the community input that informed our decision-making in revising this budget. We are humbled by the multiple hundreds of community members who engaged with us. Coretta Scott King wrote: “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
I am so grateful to live in a community that shows up in so many different ways; with care for students, for our community members, and for the future of our district. Thank you.
As always, visit the EWSD budget page to stay updated on the latest budget information (presentation slides, videos, minutes, and more) and reach out with any questions or feedback on this process.
With gratitude,
Robert Carpenter
EWSD Board Chair