Lawmakers are racing to make changes to the Act 46 spending cap to protect schools as they get ready to present their budgets to voters.
But Marlboro Elementary School Principal Francie Marbury says Act 46 has been a challenge from the start.
"The information we had around what it would take to stay under the cap wasn't really clear from the beginning of our process,” Marbury said. “And I think that's probably been one of the greatest frustrations with Act 46, in general, is no one has done it exactly this way before."
Marlboro Elementary is one of the roughly 100 schools in Vermont with budgets over the spending threshold set by Act 46.
And in many ways, Marlboro is the poster child for the school district consolidation law.
The small pre-K through eighth grade school has 81 students, while education spending in the district has risen by more than 38 percent over the past four years.
"This has consumed so much time and energy trying to figure it out. And there are a lot of other things that we do need to be paying attention to." — Francie Marbury, Marlboro Elementary School principal
Marbury is acutely aware of the capacity of Marlboro residents to continue funding their school, but she says the uncertainty around Act 46 has made it hard to focus on what she says are more important issues.
"This has consumed so much time and energy trying to figure it out,” said Marbury. “And there are a lot of other things that we do need to be paying attention to. "
During the budget process, as it became clear that the spending cap would be affecting Marlboro, Marbury had to consider cutting Spanish, the school's orchestra program or some of the class trips that she says make the small, progressive school so special.
In the end, she says, the spending cap was not enough incentive to take those programs away from the kids.
"I don't think it's the right mechanism, and that's what I'm hearing from a lot of people too,” Marbury said. “Yes, costs need to be contained, but this isn't the way to do it."
"Act 46 complicates our ability to think about long term issues... Right now, as the school board, I would much rather be leading us to think about those kind of issues and have a good plan than how will we contain the budget. It's hard to simultaneously do both of those things." — Jen Carr, Marlboro School Board chairwoman
Jen Carr is chairwoman of the Marlboro School Board.
She says at this point it doesn't matter to her what happens in Montpelier.
The budget is done, and whether lawmakers change or rescind the spending cap for this year, Carr says the board is ready to take its budget to the voters.
And she says when all of the drama over the spending cap is settled, she wants legislators to put more energy into supporting schools and school boards for the long term.
"Act 46 complicates our ability to think about long-term issues,” Carr said. “Like, how will we fund new bus purchases? How will we fund capital improvements in our school?”
“Right now,” she says, “as the school board, I would much rather be leading us to think about those kind of issues and have a good plan than how will we contain the budget. It's hard to simultaneously do both of those things."
Carr and Marbury say there might be incentives for the school to consider consolidation, but they both agree the spending cap has not been a good way to encourage schools to look into the other aspects of Act 46.
