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Land conservation is on the ballot
FEBRUARY 6, 2025
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
“We want to get into a proactive mode where we are going out to landowners saying ‘hey, can we help you make a plan for your property?’ … If you don’t want to see it developed, we would like to work with you and find a way for it to become a piece of the vision we have for Williston,’” conservation commission member Reed Carr explained. “We need to get reliability to the funding so we can begin to line up potential acquisitions.”
The Environmental Reserve Fund has already been used to preserve over 2,000 acres for public use, including Sucker Brook and Mud Pond country parks and Catamount Community Forest. With the fund’s ability to lure outside grants, each dollar has amounted to two dollars worth of conserved land, according to commission chair Dave Westman. “This becomes a multiplier for leveraging those other funds,” he said. “So if the town can put money forward, then we can approach other trusts and funding sources to match those funds … and actually acquire properties as they become available.” If approved at Town Meeting Day, the tax would be assessed only for the upcoming fiscal year. It would need to be reapproved annually by voters at future Town Meetings. “This initiative is a way to pull out a unique need for the town, which is protecting public and open spaces, and take it out of the annual budget decision-making and have it be put directly to the voters,” said Westman.
Staffing in physical education, foreign languages, and math and literacy support would also be reduced. School administrators are seeking input from parents and school staff to determine the best classroom structures for next school year, while also accounting for a continued decline in student population. “There are many factors that will go into final decisions on classroom and team structures,” Marino wrote. “Ultimately,
decision making will be the responsibility of the leadership team, with guidance and oversight from Central Office.” Decisions on future class structure will be made and shared with the community shortly after Town Meeting in March, he said, assuming the budget is approved. Which teachers will be affected by the reductions will be “based on seniority,” according to the school board. “We will not know the see STAFFING page 5
Voters faced with separate conservation tax question BY JASON STARR Observer staff
The Williston Conservation Commission has ambitious goals of ensuring that 30 percent of the town is publicly conserved by the year 2050. But the Environmental Reserve Fund (ERF) voters created in the 1980s to match state, federal and nonprofit land conservation grants will need a boost if that target is to be achieved. The commission worked with the selectboard in the fall to approve a question for voters this Town Meeting Day: Will you agree to a tax amounting to $5 for every $100,000 of assessed property value to be put toward land conservation? The tax would be separate from the town’s regular budget property tax and would generate about $110,000 for the Environmental Reserve Fund in the upcoming fiscal year. The
A skier glides along a snowy hillside in Catamount Community Forest, among the roughly 2,000 acres of publicly conserved land in Williston. FILE PHOTO BY STEVE MEASE
fund currently has about $530,000. “We’ve been up and down as far as the amount we’ve funded (the ERF),” selectboard member Terry Macaig said during budget discussions in the fall. “We’ve shortchanged them for the last couple years.” Last year the board appropriated $30,000 to the fund, incorporated into its regular annual budget. Over the years, the annual funding has been as high as $300,000 and as
low as $10,000. In 2020, the board didn’t budget any land conservation funds. The year before, it put in about $250,000 as part of the acquisition of the Catamount Community Forest. The variability has made it difficult for the conservation commission to plan a pathway to its conservation goals. About 2,200 acres of land will need to be conserved in the next 25 years for the town to reach the 30 percent goal.
Digging into school staffing cuts
Budget proposal includes nearly 40 fewer positions BY JASON STARR Observer staff
School staffing cuts associated with the Champlain Valley School District’s proposed budget are coming into focus as Town Meeting Day approaches. According to the school board, the budget proposal will result in about 40 fewer full-time district
employees next school year. When combined with reductions from last year, the district stands to lose about 80 positions over two years. In a Jan. 31 letter to the community, Williston Lead Principal Greg Marino explained that the reductions will cause an increase in class sizes and a restructuring of student groupings at Williston Central and Allen Brook schools. Planned reductions include a loss of one K-2 teacher at Allen Brook, and one grade 3-4 and two grade 5-8 teachers at Williston Central.
“We are doing what we always do, which is negotiating in good faith together and trying to find what’s best for the kids, taxpayers and teachers.” Lisa Bisbee Teachers Union negotiator
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