South Burlington voters approved their school budget by a wide margin Tuesday, but not before another racially tinged incident made waves in the community.
About 60 percent of residents casting ballots voted to pass the spending plan — the district’s third attempt at a budget in three months. The approval — by a 3,146 to 2,067 margin — ended an acrimonious budget season in a community where budgets have almost always passed on the first try. That is, until controversy over the “Rebels” nickname and school spending blew up this year.
The budget passed in three of four voting districts. Only voters in the Chamberlin district said no, by a tally of 608 to 572.
About 36 percent of registered voters turned out. The $49.2 million budget calls for a spending increase of 4.89 percent. Because of new revenues and other factors, the spending plan will result in a 1.2 percent property tax decrease.*
The big vote, though, was marred by the discovery earlier in the day of racist graffiti spray-painted on the high school’s primary athletic field.
The incident forced the boys lacrosse team to play its home semifinal playoff game against Burr and Burton Academy at Burlington High School’s field.
During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, South Burlington High School Principal Patrick Burke urged anyone with information about the vandalism to contact the school or South Burlington police.
“I don’t think somebody does something like this and nobody else knows about it,” Burke said at the press conference. “And so we would really like to find out as much as we can.”
He and Superintendent of Schools David Young wouldn’t say what was spray-painted, or whether it was directly connected to the “Rebels” mascot debate. They also wouldn’t answer whether the surveillance videos were running when the vandalism took place. School employees discovered the graffiti around 2 p.m. Tuesday. Police are investigating the incident.
“We’re not going to go into the specifics of the situation. It is an active investigation,” Young said.
After a spring of school lockdowns, death threats and heated controversy over the racial connotations of the “Rebels” nickname, the incident Tuesday was yet another challenge for the school administration.
Young seemed deflated, and described himself as “really upset about it.”
After the press conference, two men in rain ponchos could be seen standing in the center of the Munson athletic field where the vandalism took place. A tarp had been stretched over a section of the artificial turf, apparently to conceal the graffiti.
Meanwhile, at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, across the parking lot from the high school, signs for and against the spending plan lined the walkway that residents crossed to enter the building and vote.
In the back of a pickup truck, a blow-up football player in a Rebels uniform served as part of a display urging voters to turn down the budget.
But critics of the name change, who had encouraged residents to once again defeat the budget, failed this time. Signs for the winning side read: “Vote Yes for SB. Schools. Community. Value.”
*Correction, June 7, 2017: A previous version of this story had the incorrect property tax change. The budget will result in a decrease.
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Nice job South Burlington voters! I have no sympathy for those wishing to carry on the rebel legacy when it has been documented in school use honoring the confederacy, an evil system that is rightly condemned by all decent people.
Upholding symbols of oppression is beneath our great state where we respect all religions and races. I’d hope all decent people abhor the past when black people were treated as property and then pariahs. A shameful part of our history long overdue for the trash heap.
I believe you have a typo here:
“Because of new revenues and other factors, the spending plan will result in a 1.2 percent property tax increase.” That last word should be decrease.
Hi @Amanda. Thanks for catching that. It’s been corrected!
@Amanda I thought the rebel nickname was to do with the Green Mountain Boys and had nothing to do with the confederacy.
@Sean Considine — You understand incorrectly.
The name “Rebel” was chosen when the school opened in 1961 (100th anniversary of the Civil War) because the city had seceded from Burlington
The “Rebel” mascot wasn’t a “Green Mountain Boy”, it was a figure in a Confederate uniform named “Colonel Reb” or “Johnny Reb”, often with a Confederate flag (that was discontinued in the 1990s because of the racist connotations). The school colors (blue and grey) reflected the Confederate colors.
The history of the “Rebel” team name is unequivocal — the attempts to whitewash it with “Green Mountain Boy” claims is a recent invention.
Here’s a good Free Press story about the origins of the name, pointing out that even in the early 1960s many in the community questioned the appropriateness of the name… (Warning: there is an annoying autoplay video that is part of the story… don’t open it unless you’re ready for that to play.)
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/n…
Does that mean we don’t have to see those snotty mini-billboards any more? Too bad the “rebels” couldn’t put all that misplaced energy towards something constructive.
The people of the South are just as decent as the ones in the North..The North has shameful history also.. which maybe should go into the trash heap..there were many people in the North who had slaves.. the first person in the North who had a slave was a black man, and when the slaves were freed he went to court saying the slave was his property and he was able to keep the slave..There is nothing wrong with the word REBEL or the Confederate flag..People need to get their facts straight and read about the Civil War.. it was not a war about slaves..