Where the WCUUSD budget grew.

The whole budget and the student count

Between FY2020 and FY2025, the latest year for which a report prints an actual, WCUUSD general-fund total expenses rose 22.7%, from $32.8M to $40.3M. The budget column rose 22.1%, from $35.4M for FY2021 to $43.3M for FY2027; the FY2027 figure is the budget approved by voters on March 3, 2026, as the district itemizes it for the five elementary schools and U-32. Over the FY2020–FY2025 window the state's fall count of students in the six schools fell 15.0%, from 1,538 to 1,307. Spending per student, total expenses divided by that count, rose 44.4%, from $21,344 to $30,813.

Consumer prices rose 23.5% over the same five fiscal years (the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U, FY2020 average to FY2025 average; June 2020 to June 2025, 25.1%). Total expenses, at 22.7%, rose about the same as the 23.5% rise in consumer prices; spending per student, at 44.4%, rose more than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices. Instructional salaries, the largest line in the budget, rose 14.7%, less than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices; non-salary instructional spending rose 34.2%, more than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices.

The enrollment series runs longer than the budget window. Since FY2005 the six schools' fall count is down 19.1%, from 1,616 to 1,307; U-32 alone is down 25.5%, from 867 to 646.

The state's measure. The Agency of Education sets the homestead tax rate on education spending per weighted pupil: the adopted budget less offsetting revenues, divided by the state's weighted pupil count. For FY2026 that figure is $15,272 per long-term weighted ADM (2,370.68 weighted pupils; rank 27 of 128 districts). The pupil measure changed in FY2025 under Act 127, so the chart below draws the years before and after apart. The FY2027 figure as printed on the district's own AOE form is $16,373 (adopted).

Change by function

The WCUUSD budget-detail table is one general fund for all six schools, with no per-school split, grouped into about two dozen functions that each carry a printed total. Every function is the district-wide figure: “office of the principal”, for example, is the principals' offices of all six schools combined, and “instructional services” is classroom instruction across all six. Instructional services is the largest function and most of it is salaries, so the chart shows it as two rows: its printed salaries line, which rose 14.7% (+$1.16M), less than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices, and non-salary instructional spending, the rest of the function, which rose 34.2% (+$1.11M), more than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices; as printed the function rose 20.4% (+$2.27M). Ranked by percent change between the FY2020 and FY2025 actuals, the three largest increases were student transportation, other (+138.5%, +$0.05M); operation and maintenance of plant (+58.5%, +$1.46M); curriculum services (+52.2%, +$0.09M). Total expenses rose 22.7% over the same window and consumer prices 23.5%, so a function above those lines grew faster than the budget as a whole and faster than prices.

Five functions were lower in FY2025 than in FY2020. The largest decrease was debt service, −40.0% (−$0.67M); both of its lines, redemption of principal and interest on long-term debt, were lower. Preschool program (−13.3%, −$0.10M), fiscal services (−12.9%, −$0.10M), fund transfer out (−8.5%, −$0.10M) and library services (−8.4%, −$0.04M) were also lower. The toggle on the chart switches to the budget columns, FY2021 through the FY2027 budget.

The same functions, per student

Dividing each function by the year's student count puts the spending change and the enrollment change on one line. Per student, every function that grew in dollars shows a larger percent increase than in dollars, because the FY2025 count is lower. Four of the five functions that were lower in dollars are higher per student in FY2025 than in FY2020: preschool program, fiscal services, fund transfer out, library services. Debt service is lower on both measures.

Per student, the largest percent increases were student transportation, other (+180.7%, $24 → $68); operation and maintenance of plant (+86.5%, $1,623 → $3,027); curriculum services (+79.2%, $114 → $205). Every function is in the table under the chart. Per student, non-salary instructional spending went from $2,106 to $3,326 (+57.9%); instructional salaries from $5,116 to $6,908 (+35.0%); the function as printed from $7,222 to $10,234 (+41.7%).

These figures say what was spent and how many students there were. They do not say why a function grew. Was it a contract, a state requirement, a building, a program moved from another fund, or a cost that does not move with the student count? The line items below are where that question starts.

The biggest changes in dollars, one level down

Ranked by the size of the dollar change, up or down, the four functions that moved most between the FY2020 and FY2025 actuals were instructional services (+$2.27M as printed: salaries line +$1.16M, +14.7%; non-salary spending +$1.11M, +34.2%); support programs, special education (+$2.22M, +35.3%); operation and maintenance of plant (+$1.46M, +58.5%); debt service (−$0.67M, −40.0%). Each is shown the same way the functions were shown above. First, change by line item, in percent and in dollars side by side; then the same lines per enrolled student; then the full table of printed lines. Special education's printed lines changed with the 2025 report; the note “Why the lines inside special education do not all compare”, below, says which lines match. Instructional services is mostly salaries: the salaries line was $9.03M of the function’s $13.38M in FY2025. Instructional salaries rose 14.7% (+$1.16M), less than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices over the same five years. Non-salary instructional spending, the rest of the function, rose 34.2% (+$1.11M, from $3.24M to $4.35M), more than the 23.5% rise in consumer prices. The function as printed rose 20.4% (+$2.27M). The table under the instructional services heading sets the three figures side by side.

Major line-item contributors, in dollars

Across every function, the line items with the largest dollar change, up or down. The five largest were salaries in instructional services (+$1.16M, +14.7%); benefits in instructional services (+$0.73M, +31.6%); redemption of principal in debt service (−$0.60M, −43.9%); salaries in operation and maintenance of plant (+$0.56M, +47.3%); and software in instructional-related technology (+$0.38M, +772.8%). The first two are the salaries and benefits lines of instructional services, the two largest lines in the budget; the caveat under the chart gives non-salary instructional spending beside them. The fifteen on the chart, decreases netted against increases, sum to 58% of the net change in total expenses, the FY2025 total less the FY2020 total (+$7.45M).

The biggest changes in percent, one level down

Ranked by the size of the percent change, up or down, the four functions that moved most between the same two actuals were student transportation, other (+138.5%, +$0.05M); operation and maintenance of plant (+58.5%, +$1.46M); curriculum services (+52.2%, +$0.09M); superintendent services (+49.7%, +$0.26M). Operation and maintenance of plant is in both groups of four; its line items are shown once, under the dollar group above. The other three get the same three views.

Major line-item contributors, in percent

Across every function, the line items with the largest percent change, up or down, among lines of at least $50,000 in FY2025 actual. The floor keeps off the chart lines that are small in both years, where a change of a few thousand dollars is a large percent. The five largest were software in instructional-related technology (+772.8%, +$0.38M); equipment in operation and maintenance of plant (+520.3%, +$0.09M); oT services in support programs, special education (+413.9%, +$0.11M); professional education services in instructional services (+380.0%, +$0.17M); and transportation (not summer) in support programs, special education (+255.5%, +$0.14M).

Why the lines inside special education do not all compare

A line is compared where it is printed at both ends. Beginning with the 2025 report, the lines printed under special education changed (that report restates FY2023 under the new labels). A “special education shared services” line ($4,503,034 in FY2025) is printed that was not printed in FY2020, and the FY2020 lines “special education programs” ($3,646,400) and “extraordinary program” ($1,266,998) are not printed in FY2025. In the 2024-Revised report the FY2025 budget for those two lines is $3,023,334 and $1,863,300, together $4,886,634; the 2025 report prints $4,886,634 as the FY2025 budget for shared services. The function total is comparable; those lines are not, and they are listed with their printed years and no change figure.

Sources, method and caveats

Every number on this page comes from a table printed in one of the WCUUSD annual reports, linked below from the district's annual-reports page, from the district's FY 27 Final Detail Budget Sheet on its budget page, or from the Vermont Agency of Education's enrollment collection. The tables were extracted from the PDFs and checked cell for cell against the printed pages. The cross-year series built from them, with each figure's report and page number, are the CSV downloads at the top of the page.

• WCUUSD Annual Report 2020 — FY2020-21, 28 pages.
• WCUUSD Annual Report 2021 — FY2021-22, 32 pages.
• WCUUSD Annual Report 2022 — FY2022-23, 36 pages.
• WCUUSD Annual Report 2023 — FY2023-24, 36 pages.
• CUUSD Annual Report 2024 (sic) — FY2024-25 (original, pre-revote), 19 pages.
• WCUUSD Annual Report 2024-Revised — FY2024-25 (revised for the 2024 budget revote), 24 pages.
• WCUUSD Annual Report 2025 — FY2025-26, 19 pages.
• WCUUSD Annual Report 2026 — FY2026-27, 36 pages.
• FY 27 Final Detail Budget Sheet — FY2026-27, the adopted budget itemized for the five elementary schools and U-32, 4 pages.

Consumer prices: Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted, as published by the St. Louis Fed (FRED series CPIAUCNS), fetched October 8, 2026. Fiscal-year averages of the twelve monthly values July to June: FY2020 257.23, FY2025 317.73 (+23.5%); June 2020 257.80 to June 2025 322.56 (+25.1%). The page uses the fiscal-year averages.

Rules

• The state's per-pupil figure is shown as printed. Education spending per weighted pupil is the Agency of Education's own figure from its yearly “School District Spending Per Pupil” workbook, with the latest year from the district's own AOE form. Equalized pupils (through FY2024) and long-term weighted ADM (from FY2025) are two measures; they are never joined or compared across that line.
• Scores are for the same fiscal year as the spending figures. The state assessment tile is the share of students proficient or above on the VTCAP for FY2025 (school year 2024-25), the last year of the “spent” window, all tested grades, student-weighted, from the Agency of Education's dashboard files. The panel under the tiles sets the headline numbers beside the peer districts, with the Stanford Education Data Archive's comparison against what communities like this one typically score (latest published year, labeled). No composite rating is made, and the comparison is shown beside the actual results, never in place of them.
• Two windows, never mixed. “Spent” compares the earliest and latest “Actual” columns the reports print, FY2020 and FY2025. “Budgeted” compares the FY2021 budget column with the adopted FY2027 budget, as the district itemizes it for the five elementary schools and U-32.
• Ranked both ways. Every change chart shows the same rows twice, ranked by percent change and by dollar change, in both directions. Shares are shares of the net change in total expenses, the FY2025 total less the FY2020 total.
• Two groupings one level down. The four functions with the largest dollar change, whichever direction, and the four with the largest percent change, whichever direction, each get the same three views for their line items. The dollar contributors chart takes the fifteen line items with the largest dollar change across every function; the percent contributors chart takes the fifteen with the largest percent change among lines of at least $50,000 in FY2025 actual, so a line that went from a few dollars to a few hundred does not top the list. Revenue lines are not in either.
• Functions are the district's own. A function is a section the district totals in its budget-detail table; the page uses the printed total, never a recomputed sum. Labels are lightly normalized; the printed heading is the printed_label column of the functions CSV. A line item is compared only when the same line, allowing for small wording changes between reports, is printed at both ends; each end's printed wording is in the line items CSV.
• Per student uses fall enrollment, not the weighted pupil count. The Agency of Education's October head count of students by grade (its “Fall ADM” collection, grades PK–12) for the six schools, same fiscal year, using the file's own total row for each school (its grade rows sum to the same figure in most years and differ by one to five students in a few; FY2025 is 1,307 by the total rows and 1,306 by the grade rows); this page calls it the AOE fall count. The reports' own per-pupil lines are not used: long-term weighted average daily membership is the Act 127 funding figure, not a count of students, and it runs far above any head count (2,184.51 for FY2024 against 1,388 students enrolled). The AOE form printed in the 2024 report notes that “FY25 is the first year of Act 127 Long Term Weighted Average Daily Membership for pupil counts. Equalized pupils are shown for FY22-FY24”; the two are the state's weighted pupil counts, and the FY2024 and FY2025 figures on those lines are on different measures.
• Latest print wins. When several reports print the same year, the latest report's “Actual” column and the latest report's “Budget” column are used (FY2020 is printed only as an adjusted budget). For FY2027 the latest print is the district's five-school budget sheet; the 2026 report's three-school print of the same total is kept in the functions CSV with kind “proposed”. Every printing is kept in the functions CSV.

Caveats

• The FY2025 budget went to a second vote on May 7, 2024 (2024-Revised report, “Budget Vote No. 2”). The first figure, $43,810,548, is printed in the 2024 report; the second, $41,662,364, is the figure later reports print and the one used here.
• The FY2027 budget of $43,271,845 was approved on March 3, 2026, 1,684 yes to 1,379 no (Article 5 of the district clerk's certification of final votes, on the district's vote-results page). The FY2027 column on this page is the district's itemization of that budget for the five elementary schools and U-32: the FY 27 Final Detail Budget Sheet on its budget page (the district's file name carries the date 2-11-26). The 2026 annual report, printed before the February 10, 2026 town votes, itemizes the same total for three schools; that print is superseded. The two are set side by side, function by function, under the FY2027 budget, printed twice.
• FY2021 actual spending includes $2,963,051 printed under “COVID-19 expenses reimbursed by CRF funds” (Coronavirus Relief Fund), a section of its own. The same heading carries $111,847 in FY2020 actual and nothing in FY2025, so it is listed in the function table as not comparable; the totals include it as printed. The 2021 report's revenue table carries a “misc state reimbursements, including CRF, COVID-19” line.
• The district's own enrollment tables disagree between reports for the same year. In the 2025 report four of the seven printed totals do not equal the sum of its own school columns, and in the 2026 report none do; the 2025 report's FY2026 and FY2027 projections carry a footnote that they are for grades K–6 and 7–12 only, without PreK. They are shown below as printed; the per-student figures use the state count instead.
• The state's FY2018 enrollment file lists every school at roughly double its count in the adjacent years and is left out of the enrollment line.
• A handful of printed totals do not foot to their own lines by a few hundred dollars; the page keeps the printed figure in every case.

The district's enrollment tables, as printed

Total enrollment for each fiscal year as printed in each report (proj. = the report's projection), beside the state's fall count.

The FY2027 budget, printed twice

The 2026 annual report (pp. 26–30) itemizes the FY2027 budget for three schools. The district's FY 27 Final Detail Budget Sheet itemizes the same $43,271,845 for the five elementary schools and U-32; it is the budget approved on March 3, 2026, and the one this page uses. 18 of the 23 function totals differ, and 62 of the 148 line items. Neither document itemizes the reallocation. Every line of both prints is in the FY2027 two prints CSV at the top of the page.