Ward 5 NPA — Burlington, VT
Date: 2025-11-20
Time: 18:30

Ward 5 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA):
 Draft Agenda
 Thursday, November 20th
 6:30PM-8:15PM
 ​

 Join in person: 645 Pine Street (DPW Building)
  ​ Join virtually: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89574495720
​
Facilitator: Primrose VanWolvelear Note Taker: Jak Tiano




6:30 ​ ​ Community Dinner​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 30 min


7:00 ​ ​ Welcome & Public Forum​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 15 min
 ●​ Introductions
 ●​ Open floor for community input​


7:15 ​ ​ Overdose Prevention Centers Presentation ​​ ​ ​ | 15 min
 ●​ Sharing info about the OPC community survey launching in November​


7:30​ ​ Update and community conversation regarding school redistricting | 25 min
 ●​ To discuss the school redistricting process and gather input before the
 committee finalizes its recommendations​


7:55​ ​ Apartheid-Free Community presentation​ ​ ​ ​ | 20 min
 ●​ A presentation and discussion of the Open Letter to the Burlington City
 Council regarding free speech and the Apartheid Free Communities
 initiative (www.vermontcpl.org/btv)
8:15​ ​ Adjourn
 ●​ Next meeting will be Thursday, December 18th, 2025

Ward 5 Neighborhood Planning Assembly (NPA):
 Draft Agenda
 Thursday, November 20th
 6:30PM-8:15PM
 ​

 Join in person: 645 Pine Street (DPW Building)
  ​ Join virtually: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89574495720
​
Facilitator: Primrose VanWolvelear Note Taker: Jak Tiano




6:30 ​ ​ Community Dinner​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 30 min


7:00 ​ ​ Welcome & Public Forum​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ | 15 min
 ●​ Introductions
 ●​ Open floor for community input​


7:15 ​ ​ Overdose Prevention Centers Presentation ​​ ​ ​ | 15 min
 ●​ Sharing info about the OPC community survey launching in November​


7:30​ ​ Update and community conversation regarding school redistricting | 25 min
 ●​ To discuss the school redistricting process and gather input before the
 committee finalizes its recommendations​


7:55​ ​ Apartheid-Free Community presentation​ ​ ​ ​ | 20 min
 ●​ A presentation and discussion of the Open Letter to the Burlington City
 Council regarding free speech and the Apartheid Free Communities
 initiative (www.vermontcpl.org/btv)
8:15​ ​ Adjourn
 ●​ Next meeting will be Thursday, December 18th, 2025




 Page 1 of 36
EDUCATION
REFORM –
ACT 73
WHERE WE’VE BEEN
WHERE WE ARE
WHAT’S AHEAD

 Page 2 of 36
WHERE WE’VE BEEN


 Page 3 of 36
THE PROBLEM
❏ Unsustainable annual increases in property taxes

❏ Highest per-pupil spending in the country

❏ Large variations in education spending and
  education quality across the state

❏ Ed spending going up even as the number of
  students declines.


 Page 4 of 36
 ACT 73 GOALS

 1 2 3
LOWER AND ACHIEVE IMPROVE
 EFFICIENCIES EDUCATIONAL
 STABILIZE ACROSS THE OUTCOMES &
 COSTS EDUCATIONAL INCREASE
 SYSTEM STUDENT
 OPPORTUNITIES



 Page 5 of 36
1. DISTRICT CONSOLIDATION

 Task Force created to draw up to 3 maps – Report
 due to legislature this December


2. CLASS SIZE MINIMUMS

 1st grade: 10; grades 2-5: 12; grades 6-8: 15; grades
 9-12: 18. Exceptions for certain classes.
 Page 6 of 36
3. FUNDING
❏ Base funding to districts through statewide“Foundation
  Formula” (by 2028 if new districts formed by then)

❏ $15,033 per student (adjusted annually for inflation)

❏ Additional money (or weights) for students who are English
  learners, economically disadvantaged, and those with
  disabilities

❏ Other allowances
 Page 7 of 36
4. INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

 ❏ Prohibits tuitioning students to out of state schools

 ❏ Allows tuitions to VT independent schools if:
  - A district does not have a public school for some or all
 grades

  - At least 25% of students enrolled are tuitioned through
 the state

 ❏ Effective 2026-27 school year
 Page 8 of 36
5. Tax Changes
Replaces statewide property tax credit with a
homestead property tax exemption based on income.

 ❏ Households earning $115,000 or less can exempt a
 portion of housesite value – up to $425,000 – from
 property taxes.

 ❏ Taxes second homes at a higher rate than business or
 rental properties.

 ❏ Implementation report due by Dec 31st.
 Page 9 of 36
WHERE WE ARE


 Page 10 of 36
 Redistricting Task Force - August - Nov

 GUIDING PRINCIPLES
❏ Be pragmatic and focused
❏ Acknowledge political realities
❏ Use DATA, not assumptions
❏ Honor local knowledge
❏ Do no harm
❏ Design for resilience




 Page 11 of 36
 Redistricting Report
❏ No research supports the mandated Act 73 sizes (of between
  4-8,000 students)

❏ Evidence of potential harm if implementation is too rapid or
  poorly planned

❏ New maps don’t address real cost drivers (health insurance,
  special education, transportation, building maintenance &
  construction investments)

❏ Research reflects that locally driven, voluntary mergers are
  more successful and can produce more immediate savings
 Page 12 of 36
Its Conclusion


 “Vermont should concentrate on
 instructional improvement and
 regional shared-service capacity,
 not on large or rapid district
 mergers.”
 Page 13 of 36
INSTEAD… THREE COMPLEMENTARY STRATEGIES
❏ Creation of regional Cooperative Education Services
  Areas designed to reduce duplication, leverage proximate
  resources, promote equitable access to education, and
  reduce costs.

❏ Incentivizing strategic, voluntary mergers focused on
  educational benefit, community priorities, and fiscal
  sustainability

❏ Regionally-governed high schools to expand student
  opportunity (particularly in rural areas)

 Page 14 of 36
REDISTRICTING: Timeline
 Multi-year, multi-stage process:

 Year 1: Assessment and Planning
 ID shared svs opportunities
 Years 1-2 Launch service pilots
 Begin regional staffing where feasible
 Evaluation and feedback
 Years 2-4 Conduct feasibility studies for regional
 high schools
 Incentivize voluntary mergers
 Years 4+ Expand successful models statewide
 Implement mergers and governance shifts
 Evaluate Page 15 of 36
Parallel Work
❏ Commission on the Future of Public Education charged
  with resolving issues related to school governance:
  which decisions are local, which belong to the state?

❏ Agency of Education charged with establishing
  statewide high school graduation requirements

❏ Reports on other issues - school construction,
  transportation, career and technical education, special
  education and pre-K - in process
 Page 16 of 36
WHAT ABOUT BTV?


 Page 17 of 36
Helpful Links
❏ Draft Report: https://bit.ly/3XM4MEt
❏ AOE Task Force Link: https://bit.ly/3Xalr4x




 Page 18 of 36
Burlington, VT
NPA Meeting Tour

 Page 19 of 36
AGENDA


 Israeli Local Next Steps Open
Apartheid and Campaign Discussion
the Genocide and Q&A




 Page 20 of 36
Page 21 of 36
Israeli apartheid: Deprivation
 The deliberate impoverishment of
 4 strategies Palestinians. For example, keeping
 them at a great disadvantage in
 comparison to Jewish Israelis
 Dispossession
 Decades of discriminatory
 land and property seizures,
 home demolitions, and Fragmentation
 forced evictions Keeping Palestinians
 separated from each other
 Segregation into distinct territorial, legal
 A system of laws and policies that and administrative domains
 keep Palestinians restricted to
 enclaves, subject to several
 measures that control their lives,
  and segregated from Jewish Israelis Source: Amnesty International
 Page 22 of 36
 Israeli apartheid:
 According to whom?




  Advisory opinion on July 19,
2024 found Israel responsible
  for committing apartheid.
 Page 23 of 36
Page 24 of 36
Israeli apartheid: Who’s paying for it?




 Page 25 of 36
LOCAL
CAMPAIGN
 Page 26 of 36
The VERMONT COALITION FOR
PALESTINIAN LIBERATION is a
collaboration of several Vermont
organizations and hundreds of
Vermont residents volunteering
their time and energy to work for a
FREE PALESTINE.



 Page 27 of 36
$27.6 million Vermont taxpayer
dollars sent to Israel in 2024

3 Palestinian students were shot Palestine
in Burlington in 2023, showing the is a local
 issue.
violence is not contained overseas

The Boomerang Comes Back,
spreading apartheid, hate, and
violence spread

 Page 28 of 36
THE APARTHEID-FREE
COMMUNITY PLEDGE:
 Initiated by the American
WE AFFIRM our commitment to Friends Service Committee
freedom, justice, and equality for the
Palestinian people and all people;
 in 2022, this pledge has
 been adopted worldwide
WE OPPOSE all forms of racism,
bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; by 880+ businesses,
and community organizations,
WE DECLARE ourselves an artists, unions, faith
Apartheid-free community and to that organizations, &
end,
 municipalities.
WE PLEDGE to join others in working to
end all support to Israel’s Apartheid
regime, settler colonialism, and military
occupation.
 Page 29 of 36
 Winooski

 Plainfield

 Thetford
 Support
 for the
 pledge is
 growing
 around
 Vermont…
Newfane
Brattleboro
 Page 30 of 36
2024




 …but in
 Burlington,
 our vote is
2025 being
 blocked.
 Page 31 of 36
 Burnaby, BC, Canada
 Aug 26, 2025 | Passed resolution to endorse
 AFC and write to federal government
 demanding an arms embargo.
 Somerville, MA
 Nov 4, 2025 | Ballot question to
 boycott and divest from businesses
 supporting Israeli apartheid passed
 with 55.7% of votes.
 Iowa City, IA
Aug 5, 2025 | Passed resolution to boycott
 and divest from businesses supporting

 Beyond
 Israeli genocide and occupation.
 St. Louis, MO
 Nov 7, 2025 | Passed
 resolution to divest city Burlington,
 pensions from war and
 human rights violations cities and
 by Israel.
 towns are
 taking
 action.Page 32 of 36
 Let Voters Decide on
 Apartheid-Free Community
 OPEN LETTER TO BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL

Dear Burlington City Council & Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak,

Democrats on the City Council blocked the AFC pledge advisory
question from going to voters two years in a row, despite thousands of
Burlington residents signing petitions to put the pledge on the ballot. In
April 2025, the Council unanimously approved a resolution for
protecting free speech on Palestine, and it is time to rectify the fact that
our free speech rights have been repeatedly denied. There should be a
democratic vote on adopting the pledge.

We, the undersigned, SUPPORT the Apartheid-Free Community (AFC)
pledge, and DEMAND that the Burlington City Council place the AFC
advisory referendum question on the town meeting day 2026 ballot.

 Page 33 of 36
NEXT
STEPS
 Page 34 of 36
What can you do?
 Ben Traverse
❏ Sign the open letter (vermontcpl.org/btv) btraverse@burlington.gov
 802-357-2055
❏ Contact your city councilors to demand the right
 to vote on AFC Buddy Singh
 bsingh@burlington.gov
❏ Inform your community about AFC and post on 802-238-5131
 Front Porch Forum
❏ Volunteer with VCPL to support this campaign
❏ Support “No Appetite for Apartheid” campaign


What can this NPA do?
Vote on a resolution to call on City Council to uphold democratic norms
and endorse the open letter to the Burlington City Council
 Page 35 of 36
THANK YOU
Questions? Contact us:
apartheidfree@vermontcpl.org
vermontcpl.org


 Page 36 of 36

Neighborhood Planning Assembly Minutes
 Ward
 NPA: 5

 Date of Assembly : 11/20/2025 Start Time: (Commence): 6:59
 Location: DPW Finish Time: (Adjourn): 8:31
 Note taker: Jak Tiano

Steering Committee Members in Attendance:​
Jak Tiano, Primrose VanWolevear, Jason Van Driesche, FaRied Munarsyah, Lena Greenberg
Discussion Topics
●​ OPC Presentation Actions Taken / Decisions Made
●​ School Redistricting ●​ No actions taken
●​ Apartheid Free Community Pledge

Agenda Items and Actions:
 ●​ 6:59PM: Prim calls meeting to order
 ●​ 7:00PM: Opens public forum
 ○​ FaRied Explains People’s Kitchen
 ○​ Jak pitches an idea about neighborhood development group
 ○​ Andy explains that there’s a need for people to help move benches in in Calahan
 Park
 ○​ Andy also explains that there’s a walk through of calahan park and the new paths
 coming up
 ○​ Jason makes a plug to go out in the mountains, because winter is here (there)
 ○​ There is a question and a brief discussion about the changes downtown with new
 police patrols and changing shelter bed situation
 ●​ 7:15PM: Jess Kirby Director of Client Services from Vermonters for Criminal Justice
 Reform kicks off the presentation on the Overdose Prevention Center
 ○​ City website under the OPC tab there’s a survey for people who live or work in
 BTV to take, live until December 15th: Survey link
 ○​ There’s also a webinar about the OPC on the city website: Webinar link
 ○​ These two pieces are the main points of the presentation; opens it up for
 question
 ○​ Question about the timeline:
 ■​ They don’t know when things are going to happen yet because it will
 depend on siting. Currently on Bank street, but don’t have a final location
 sorted out yet and wont stay on Bank street. This is a big part of the
 service assessment survey.
 ■​ Needs to be walking distance to downtown, so that it’s in proximity to
 where overdoses are happening, and to also alleviate impact of public
 drug use and discarded syringes.
 ○​ Question from Andy: in the most basic form, could you explain what an OPC is?
 ■​ OPC is an “overdose prevention center”, used to be called a “safe
 injection site”, but has evolved over time to be more clear about what it is.
 The goal is for it to be a harm reduction hub, for people to have
 low-barrier access to supportive services. It’s a way to get people what
 they need, and to make a connection between harm reduction and
 recovery, and to help people build trust so they can get better. That being
 said, there will still be services to help people safely take their drugs and
 be responded to in the event of an overdose.
●​ 7:35PM: Tiff, Bram, and Lucia kick off the conversation about school redistricting
 ○​ Today, the redistricting task force met to finalize and approve a report to the
 legislature, which will come to the legislature on December 1st
 ○​ Bram gives overview
 ■​ Act 73 is spurred mostly by high property taxes, and by the fact that we
 had the highest per-pupil spending in the country, unequal educational
 outcomes, and yet schools had fewer kids than ever
 ■​ There were a lot of questions about the optimal size of school districts
 and class sizes, but also a need to change how funding works
 ■​ Instead, every district gets a per-pupil dollar amount, with additional
 weights for kids who have higher needs (costs)
 ■​ No more Vermont tax dollars going to out of school states
 ■​ Replacing statewide property tax credit with a homestead property tax
 exemption based on income.
 ○​ Tiff explains where we are in the process
 ■​ Task force wants to be pragmatic, focused, and data driven
 ■​ Research showed that there was no support for the district sizes
 proposed, and that forced mergers cause problems; new maps don’t
 address real cost drivers, which are health insurance, special ed, and
 transportation; locally driven voluntary mergers are best
 ■​ The conclusion is that “Vermont should concentrate on instructional
 improvement and regional shared-service capacity, not on large or rapid
 district mergers.”
 ■​ Instead: 1) regional Cooperative Education Services Areas designed to
 actually reduce costs, 2) incentivise strategic voluntary mergers, 3) work
 toward regionally-governed high schools (particularly in rural areas)
 ○​ Jason asks “Can the Governor actually throw out the task force report?”
 ■​ Tiff says she’s not sure, but is hopefully that wont need to happen
 ○​ Lucia gives a BTV framing
 ■​ From the start, BTV’s school board have been opposed to Act 73,
 because there’s no data to support that this would save costs, improve
 operations, and would not increase educational outcomes
 ■​ The proposed solution is potentially elegant, and the school board has not
 met yet since the report came out, but Lucia is optimistic about it
 ■​ Last year Burlington’s budget went up, but the tax impact went down.
 Even with the changes, that should continue to fund the district until the
 new process goes into place for at least a few years.
 ■​ From an operational perspective, it would be very harmful to the workers
 and students
●​ 8:07PM: Apartheid Free Community Pledge
 ○​ For the last two years, city council has stopped a ballot initiative from moving
 forward, and they would like it to move forward
 ○​ Presenters give an overview of what apartheid is, and its presence in the state of
 Israel
 ○​ The presenters connect this back to Burlington, and how the money we pay in
 taxes goes to Israel through the federal government
 ○​ Amy gives a brief overview of what the Apartheid Free Community Pledge is
 ■​ In 2025, 9 towns actually voted on this, and 5 passed it
 ■​ Burlington allows ballot items to go on the ballot with enough signatures,
 and in 2024 and 2025 they got enough signatures, but the Burlington City
 Council blocked this from going forward
 ○​ A question about why it’s important that we vote on this?
 ■​ The presenter explains that the most important thing is that we vote on it,
 not that it passes. People have made it clear that they want it on the
 ballot, and it’s important to let that democratic voice carry through.
 ○​ Ben Traverse wanted to mention that because Democratic City Councillors were
 called out, he wanted to speak to it.
 ■​ Ben says that as city council president he does not plan to put this on the
 ballot.
 ■​ In a statement he explains that he does not believe that the wording of the
 question does not allow for safe discussion, in the community, and offers
 his personal experience in the past.
 ■​ He also offers that he believes that the organizers have not been open to
 evolving the language.
 ○​ Buddy Singh also offers his own thoughts on the topic.
 ■​ His main focus is on the fact that he feels dialogue is not happening, and
 that we should focus on conversation over a ballot initiative.
●​ 8:31PM: Prim adjourns the meeting.