CVSD's Proposed Bond on the Ballot

Kelly Bowen, CVSD School Board Finance Committee Chair, has shared the following on Front Porch Forum in each CVSD town. It's the next in a series of posts to help inform voters about the proposed budget for 2022-2023. 

Dear CVSD Community Members and Voters,

This is the second post in a series to update you on the upcoming 2022-2023 proposed school district budget. Look for bi-weekly updates on Front Porch Forum or other school news outlets.

In this post, I will outline Article X (ten) on the ballot. Article X requests a bond that will positively impact all CVSD schools.

The CVSD Board of Directors is committed to a sustainable capital funding strategy, which minimizes costs and stabilizes tax impact. Our goal is to present district voters with consistent, small investment (bond) requests prioritized to eliminate the need for the large and costly construction projects that we have experienced in the past.

Tax-paying residents of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George, and Williston share fiscal responsibility for maintaining the six CVSD buildings.

The projects funded by this proposed $7.5 million bond focus on urgent needs–life-safety, and accessibility upgrades, hazardous material remediation, trip/fall hazard remediation, security improvements, HVAC upgrades, and a few high-priority maintenance projects. Every school will benefit from the passage of this bond article. The most significant proposed project is for Charlotte Central School, where CVSD continues to address significant deferred maintenance. We are following the district's plan to stay ahead of maintenance needs in other schools. (Deferred maintenance is costly and time-consuming and detracts from students' needs.)

The bond timing is designed to take advantage of other retiring debt (past bonds that are expiring.) This is done to minimize the impact on the tax-rate and the taxpayer. We anticipate that the entire debt payment (at its highest level with no offsets) would be one cent on the tax rate.

For a complete outline of the proposed work plan to be funded through this bond, see: https://www.cvsdvt.org/budget Or, view a short video by CVSD's COO, Jeanne Jensen, here: https://youtu.be/D1g7rsSvy3s

As Finance Committee Chair, I appreciate and share the public's concern for fiscal conservatism. Please reach out to me: kbowen@cvsdvt.org if I can be of assistance.

Kind regards,

Kelly A. Bowen, CVSD Finance Committee Chair


Please join the CVSD INFORMATIONAL MEETING via Zoom on Monday, February 28, 2022, at 5:00. ZOOM meeting information: https://www.cvsdvt.org/budget or directly: https://cvsdvt-org.zoom.us/j/88634652241 Meeting ID: 886 3465 2241 - Passcode: cvsd11

Phone Participation: 1-646-876-9923 - Passcode: 854788

More information:

Budget page www.cvsdvt.org/budget
Annual Report https://www.cvsdvt.org/Page/602
2022-2023 Budget Flyer https://bit.ly/CVSDBudgetFlyerFY23
Budget FAQ’s https://bit.ly/CVSDBudgetFY23FAQs

See the Annual Warning on the budget page of our website for all of the ballot articles. We encourage all eligible residents in Champlain Valley School District towns to vote on March 1st or earlier.