Ward 5 NPA

Regular Meeting

Burlington, VT · February 19, 2026

Minutes

Neighborhood Planning Assembly Minutes Ward NPA: 5 Date of Assembly :_2/19/26__ Start Time: (Commence): 7:02pm Location: 645 Pine Street Finish Time: (Adjourn): __8:31pm_ Note taker: Jak Tiano Please forward these official minutes to: BT Steering Committee Members in Attendance: Jason Van Dreische, Jak Tiano, FaRied Munarsyah, Lena Greenberg, Cathy Foley, Prim VanWolvelear (Zoom) Discussion Topics ● NPA priorities in 2026 Actions Taken / Decisions Made ● School Budget and other school updates ● Drafted our 2026 NPA Priorities for City Council ● Discussion of Proposition Zero Agenda Items and Actions: ● Commence: 7:02pm ○ Lena opens the meeting with an overview of the agenda ● Public forum ○ Jason Van Dreische gives an update on the parks path in Calahan ○ Lucia Campriello asks for support in running for the school board ○ Sarah (Ward 6) asks if running unopposed matters for a vote ■ Lucia says that you don’t need to vote for them and others say that it does matter because you know how ○ Jak Tiano asks people to get in touch with their legislators to support transit funding ■ David Foss supports Jak’s comments and says that transportation is important, especially to the airport ■ Scott Lowe asks if it’s only related to Burlington or if it’s the whole state, and Jak clarifies that it’s transit in Vermont overall ○ Lena reminds people that March 3rd is Town Meeting Day, and that our April meeting will be our NPA Steering Committee election ● NPA priorities in 2026 ○ Lena explains the NPA resolution that passed last year, and why we’re talking about NPA priorities ○ Scott Lowe says a priority for him is the uncertainty around property taxes and how they may shift; specifically asking for why shifting the tax burden would be more beneficial to residents ○ Jason says we should tax more the things we don’t want, and tax the things we want less; i.e. tax surface parking more, cannabis shops more ○ David says Burlington needs to develop a better transportation plan, it’s hard for many residents to access health care, airport, etc. Needs to be easier for people to come into town for work. SSTA for many seniors is becoming more expensive and hard to access. ○ Resident says that housing for unhoused people, expansion of voucher program should be prioritized. ○ Jak says this should be an opportunity for thinking about how we manage growth with intention. ○ Jamie Contois is thinking a lot about what are some of the ways we can support communication around the needs of working families (health care, child care, housing). Also wondering about the seemingly unneeded division between partisan politics in the city. ● School Budget and other school updates ○ Lucia Campriello and Jeff Wick introduce themselves as school board commissioners ■ Lucia gives an overview of what the budget covers, and the value it provides ■ She also mentions that a major part of the budget increase is health care, and the primary component of the budget is teachers ■ BTV is seeing a decrease in enrollment ■ $6M increase in budget, with a 4.7% increase to property tax payer ■ Jeff says we have a clean audit, and even had a tax decrease last year ■ He also says that if we hadn’t had to build the new high school, education taxes probably would have gone down again this year. ■ He thanks the public for their support over the years, and key school district staff. ■ Andy Simon asks about how “the state level stuff” impacts our local school issues. Lucia explains the way pupil weightings changed in recent years, and how important that was to equitable funding of Burlington schools. ■ Jason asks what percentage of $140.8M is health insurance? Jeff isn’t sure off the top of his head. ■ Jason also asks about any known plans for Burlington district consolidation, but presenters aren’t sure where things stand at the moment but would be against it. ■ Jamie asks where the coalition is for health care reform given its existential risk to many organizations around the state, and what does our school district do in that larger conversation. ○ Victor Prussack is the Director of Engagement, is here to talk about “proactive ICE preparedness” procedure ■ The district is hoping to be prepared ahead of time if we were to see the same thing that happened in Portland ME or Minneapolis MN ■ There is a draft plan now at the district level for the procedure, hoping to have it public by the end of the first week of march ■ Goal is to keep attention away from our schools ■ Victor outlines the major buckets of the procedure, and details will be out in a few weeks. ■ Andy asks “what triggers this plan”? Victor said that they’re still working out the details, but in a “Green, Orange, Red” scenario, we’re already in Orange. ■ Jamie asks how we can start dispelling the mythology around what can happen here, to offer a reality check for people about what it means to be taken by ICE in Vermont. Jason agrees. Jamie clarifies that she does want to see some action on this in the PTOs, and Victor says that leadership will need to come from families in the community. ■ Rebecca (online, Ward 3) adds that a couple things we can start doing now is to get to know your neighbors, go to events, and build community before things get worse. We can know our rights now. ● Discussion of Proposition Zero ○ FaRied opens the discussion about how town meeting works in other small towns in Vermont, and how prop zero is aiming to be a charter amendment in the November election ○ It includes three mechanisms of direct democracy: ○ The ability of voters to solicit 5% of voters on a petition on: ■ advisory question ■ a voters initiative ■ a popular referendum ○ Daniel says that the point of Proposition Zero is to fix an error in Burlington’s charter to restore some aspect of direct democracy ○ The goal is to update the charter to give the three new powers listed above to the people, allowing people to have some lament of direct democracy ○ Andy asks: 1) who makes the determination that an ordinance is legal? (The city attorney) 2) if we get enough signatures, the city must put it on the ballot because it’s a charter change, right? (Yes) ● Meeting adjourns at 8:31pm

Agenda

Packet

Ward 5 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA): Draft Agenda Thursday, February 19th 6:30PM-8:15PM Join in person: 645 Pine Street (DPW Building) Join virtually: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89574495720 Facilitator: Lena Greenberg Note Taker: Jak Tiano 6:30 Community Dinner | 30 min 7:00 Welcome & Public Forum | 10 min 7:10 NPA priorities in 2026 | 15 min ● Quick discussion ahead of a fuller conversation in March about our priority interests, which we’ll share with City Council 7:25 School Budget and other school updates | 30 min ● Lucia Campriello (Burlington School Board) will share about the school budget which will be on the ballot this coming Town Meeting Day 7:55 Discussion of Proposition Zero | 20 min ● FaRied Munarsyah will present on Proposition Zero, a potential ballot item 8:15 Adjourn ● Next meeting will be Thursday, March 19, 2026 Page 1 of 3 Fiscal Year 2027 Proposed Budget for Town Meeting Day Town Meeting Day is March 3rd! Visit www.bsdvt.org/budget for complete budget and voting information. BALLOT LANGUAGE Shall the voters of the School District approve the School Board to expend $140,807,830 which is the amount the school board has determined to be necessary for the ensuing fiscal year? Burlington School District estimates that this proposed budget, if approved, will result in per pupil education spending of $15,774.58, which is 6.40% higher than per pupil education spending for the current year. BUDGET AT A GLANCE Total Current Year Budget (FY26) $134.7 million Increases to Health Insurance, Wages, and $4,682,571 Benefits Federal Revenue Reductions, Debt Service $4,675,259 and Operating Inflation Reductions (10 FTEs, Downtown BHS Rent, -$3,250,000 Department Budgets and Reorganizations) Total Proposed Budget for Next Year (FY27) $140.8 million Percent Change from FY26 Budget 4.47% TAX IMPACT ESTIMATES See reverse for more information. Property Tax Payer +4.7% Impact on $370K homestead $266 Income Tax Payer +1.89% Impact on $50k income $23 Important Disclaimer: The actual impact on taxpayers receiving an income- based credit is a combination of changes to their incomes and house-site values over multiple years. This estimate makes assumptions about all of these variables to illustrate a hypothetical impact. Income credit lags behind the change in property tax bills by one year. BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS 1. Prioritizes academic achievement by providing more support for early math and literacy. 2. Drives funds towards students who need it the most with updated RISE allocations and expanded special education services. 3. Continues to align staffing to enrollment while minimizing layoffs. 4. Property Tax Rate increase assumes a $75 million tax buy- down from the State of Vermont. 5. Development of BSD’s budget is informed by the District’s Strategic Plan and our North Star: Every learner is challenged, empowered, and engaged. What’s the story behind our budget? Turn this page over to learn more! Page 2 of 3 Fiscal Year 2027 Proposed Budget for Town Meeting Day Town Meeting Day is March 3rd! Visit www.bsdvt.org/budget for complete budget and voting information. What is the Story Behind this Year’s Budget? Each year, our goal is the same: to be careful with public dollars while continuing to provide excellent schools for our students. The school budget supports classroom learning, social and emotional supports, arts and music, athletics, and afterschool and summer programs that many families rely on. We knew that keeping these programs at their current level would require about a 5% increase to the District’s overall budget, even after making reductions due to lower enrollment. This is a reflection of the rising costs of health care, salaries, and the day-to-day costs of running our schools (inflation). We also knew that in addition to keeping taxes low, recent achievement data makes it clear that we need to be prioritizing classroom Combining transportation, food, instruction. maintenance, and school operations, over As a result, our proposed budget offers a number of 80% of all funds go directly to schools! reductions while also supporting the following instructional activities: 🍎 Updating the academic coaching model to include increased time spent on direct student support (e.g., intervention) 🍎 Revising our evaluation framework to align with the learning framework. 🍎 Prioritizing early literacy through the use of universal screeners and training in the science of reading. 🍎 Expanding support for elementary mathematics. 🍎 Expanding in-District special education programing for students with the most significant needs. Together, the budget represents moderate growth of 4.47%, and a moderate property tax impact of 4.7%. It’s important to know that this projected Property Tax Rate increase assumes that the Vermont legislature will add $75 million to Vermont’s Education Fund, reducing the tax impact on every community in the state. We are confident that at least this amount will be added. Without this, the tax rate increase would be 8.99%. How are we Working to Control Costs? Our primary cost controlling measure is staffing. This year’s budget reduces 6.5 classroom teachers in response to a decline in enrollment. An additional 3.5 district office positions are also proposed for reduction. We will also be reducing department budgets and restructuring some positions in central office. While we have faced reductions in each of the past four budget cycles, we have worked to avoid mass layoffs by spreading changes over time. As a result, attrition and restructuring have enabled us to retain almost all teachers impacted by reductions in the past few years. This remains our goal again this year. How Does Borrowing for the BHS/BTC Project Impact this Budget? BSD has completed borrowing for the project. We were able to limit our total borrowing to $159 million of the $165 million voter authorization, saving taxpayers six million dollars of debt and well in excess of that amount in interest costs. The proposed FY27 budget includes $13.5 million of debt service that represents the annual payment of principal and interest associated with the $159 million that has been borrowed. For context, the projected project tax would be about 5.6% lower were it not for this debt service. Development of BSD’s budget is informed by the District’s Strategic Plan and our North Star: every learner is challenged, empowered, and engaged. Turn this document over to learn more about the budget. Page 3 of 3