A welcoming blue-and-white graphic promoting South Burlington School District’s FY28 Budget Blitz #1, taking place November 16–20, 2026. The image features the message “Your Voice Matters,” along with illustrations of students, families, and community members discussing school budgeting. Budget documents, charts, and speech bubbles emphasize community participation, transparency, and opportunities to provide feedback. The South Burlington School District logo appears in the lower-right corner.

You're Invited: Budget Blitz #1 — Help Shape Our FY28 Budget

Dr. Joe Clark

November 6, 2026

Dear South Burlington School District Community,

As we begin developing our budget for the 2027–2028 school year (FY28), we're taking a different approach, and we want you to be part of the conversation.

Rather than simply starting with last year's budget and making adjustments, we're taking a comprehensive look at how we allocate resources across our five schools. We're examining enrollment, class sizes, staffing, student supports, academic programming, research on effective educational practices, and our schools' Continuous Improvement Plans. Most importantly, we're asking whether our current resources are aligned with what students need and the outcomes established in our School Board's Ends Policy.

We're calling this process Budget Blitz, and our first round of community conversations will take place November 16–20.

Budget Blitz #1 — Community Meeting Schedule

We're offering five opportunities to participate, including both in-person and virtual sessions:

  • Monday, November 16 — 4:00 p.m. | Virtual

  • Tuesday, November 17 — 4:30–6:00 p.m. | Gertrude Chamberlin School, In Person

  • Wednesday, November 18 — 10:00 a.m. | Virtual

  • Thursday, November 19 — 6:30 p.m. | Orchard School, In Person

  • Friday, November 20 — 9:00 a.m. | Virtual

Each session will cover the same information, so you only need to attend one.

All Zoom meeting links and Budget Blitz information will be available on our district's School Budget Information webpage. Please visit that page to join any of our virtual sessions.

What Will We Discuss?

We'll share what we're learning about our district's current programs, staffing, and resources, along with research and data that are informing our thinking. We'll discuss where we see opportunities to strengthen educational experiences, where we might operate more efficiently, and what questions we're still working to answer.

We are not presenting a finished budget or asking you to approve a predetermined set of changes. Our goal is to share information, explain our thinking, listen to your perspectives, and make sure we're considering the right questions before developing our preliminary budget.

We Want Your Feedback!

Everyone will have an opportunity to complete a feedback survey, whether you attend in person, join virtually, or watch the recorded presentation. We'll share the survey during each session and make it available on our School Budget Information webpage.

We'll also post a recording of the presentation so community members who cannot attend can review the same information before sharing their perspectives.

Our preliminary FY28 budget will be presented to the School Board on December 2, and we'll continue gathering community input through additional Budget Blitz sessions in January and February.

I believe strongly that our responsibility is not simply to maintain the programs and staffing structures we've always had, but to continually examine whether we're providing the best educational opportunities possible for our students while being responsible stewards of community resources.

That requires thoughtful questions, good information, and a willingness to consider doing some things differently.

I hope you'll join us for Budget Blitz #1. Whether you attend a meeting, watch the recording, or complete the survey, your perspective matters.

Thank you for your continued support of the South Burlington School District.