Aquilas Lokossou moved to Burlington from West Africa when he was 4. As a student at Edmunds Elementary School, he met a school counselor, Pat Hulbert, who helped him acclimate to Vermont.
Having “a secure start in the public school system was huge,” Lokossou said, “and it was all because of her.”
Lokossou went on to graduate from Burlington High School and SUNY Plattsburgh. Last year, he earned his master’s degree in school counseling from the University of Vermont while serving as a school commissioner in Burlington.
This school year, Lokossou, now 24, was hired as a school counselor at South Burlington High School, where he helps students navigate academic and social challenges and figure out postgraduation plans.
As a young Black man born outside the U.S., Lokossou said he’s been able to form particularly strong bonds with the English language learners and students of color in South Burlington.
The school’s director of counseling, Meghan Sweet, agrees. “I have never seen a new counselor so naturally adept at building meaningful connections with every student he supports,” she said.
Lokossou was looking forward to building on the work he’s done with students next school year. But he won’t get the chance. His is one of 15 full-time positions that the district is cutting in an attempt to put forward a budget that voters will approve on March 4.
The decision to cut Lokossou’s position, reducing the number of school counselors at South Burlington High School from four to three, has drawn criticism from school staff. Other proposed reductions — to preschool educators, a ninth-grade dean who supports students’ transition to high school and a long-running alternative high school program — have also upset community members.
South Burlington superintendent Violet Nichols said the district was left with no better options. She and fellow administrators methodically combed through the district’s expenditures to create “a reasonable, responsible budget” that still upholds the state’s quality standards, she said.
Even so, South Burlington homeowners are likely to see their tax rate rise by nearly 8 percent. That’s due to several factors specific to South Burlington, according to the district’s senior director of operations and finance, Tim Jarvis. The school district used up its $3 million reserve fund last year to buy down tax rates and pass its budget on the third try, which essentially left the district “$3 million in the hole” this year, “even before making any actual spending cuts,” Jarvis said. And the district, because of its relative affluence compared to other school districts in the state, has also lost its ability to offer the same level of services without raising taxes under the provisions of Act 127, the pupil-weighting law that went into effect last year.
South Burlington isn’t alone in facing difficult decisions this budget season. Financial pressures — including an 11.9 percent increase in employee health care benefits, which are negotiated at a state level, and a steep increase in special-education costs — are impacting districts across the state. As a result, some are making dramatic cuts to teachers and staff — one of the only line items they have control over. Staff salaries and benefits account for around 80 percent of school budgets.
Vermont-NEA executive director Jeff Fannon told legislators earlier this month that if school budgets pass as warned on Town Meeting Day, roughly 300 to 400 positions would likely be eliminated.
Because of the educator shortage, which is more acute in less populous areas of the state, some districts are simply cutting unfilled positions. Maple Run Unified School District in St. Albans, for example is eliminating 20 full-time positions, but all but 3.5 of them are vacant. Mount Abraham Unified School District in Bristol is eliminating seven unfilled positions, including four that focus on social-emotional learning.
In other districts, dozens of educators are losing their jobs.
After making 42 staffing cuts last year, the Champlain Valley School District, which serves 3,700 students in Williston, Shelburne, Hinesburg, Charlotte and St. George, has no unfilled positions to eliminate. It is cutting 39 positions this year, including a part-time caseworker who supports homeless students, an assistant principal, behavior interventionists and high school teachers.
The budget that residents will vote on is just over 1 percent higher than last year’s and is projected to reduce property tax rates between 2.2 to 4.9 percent, depending on the town. The decrease could be greater if Gov. Phil Scott’s plan to buy down taxes by injecting more money into the state education fund this year comes to fruition.
Champlain Valley superintendent Adam Bunting and school board chair Meghan Metzler said they began drafting next year’s budget last summer, aiming to be as transparent as they could with both community members and school staff. They wanted a spending plan that reflects the perspective of voters worried about being able to stay in their homes because of exorbitant property taxes while also looking to protect the interests of the school community. Still, they acknowledged, that meant reducing positions that directly impact students.
Some people have the impression that because Champlain Valley has a more affluent student population than other districts, the cuts won’t really have much of an effect, Bunting said. But 20 percent of the school district’s student body is economically disadvantaged.
“That’s over 800 students in our district who are struggling,” Bunting said. “That’s the size of entire districts.”
Lawmakers are working on an overhaul of the education system, with the goal of increasing opportunities for students at a cost that taxpayers can afford. Metzler said she’s hopeful that they will come up with a plan that “helps give everyone opportunities, rather than depleting them from some areas of the state and reallocating them.”
In South Burlington, Lokossou is worried about how the loss of key staff will affect students. He noted that part of being an effective school counselor is building relationships with students over the course of several years, just as “Ms. Hulbert” did with him.
“I’m thinking about the work and the connections I’ve been making,” Lokossou said. “I don’t want to leave that.”
Correction, February 24, 2025: An earlier version of this story noted the wrong title for Vermont-NEA executive director Jeff Fannon.
Related Stories
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!