This article was written by Doug Phinney and Jack Pitblado

Winooski residents elected Aurora Hurd and Thomas Renner to the City Council, long with three School Board trustees and city spending bills on Town Meeting Day.

This election marks the first to take place under Winooski’s all-resident voting initiative, which allows non-citizen residents to vote in municipal elections. According to City Clerk Jenny Willingham, there were 54 voters this election who aren’t citizens — 15 of whom registered on Town Meeting Day. About 600 people in the city were newly eligible to vote this year.

The city also approved a $1.3 million bond for a new fire truck, and voters approved all budget and spending items.

City Council

The voters of Winooski elected two new City Councilors at Town Meeting: Aurora Hurd, and Thomas Renner, who were two of seven candidates running for seats.

Hurd, a 26-year-old who has lived in Winooski for five years, has spent time working as a part of the Winooski Regional Library Committee. They say this experience has given them a first-hand look at the work happening in Winooski, and helped inspire them to run for City Council.

“I am very, very excited, and honored to be one of the two new Winooski council members. I’m also really excited that Thomas Renner also won. I think we’re going to have some great teamwork on the council,” Hurd said after the election.

Hurd says that their top priorities will be housing and equity.

“My overall goals will definitely be really looking at housing, particularly strengthening renters’ rights, and also looking into making housing more affordable both to buy and rent, as well as supporting the equity work that's currently being done in the city,” Hurd said.

Thomas Renner, 32, also has lived in Winooski for almost five years. In that time, he has worked on the Safe, Healthy, Connected People Commission as both a general commission member and the commission secretary. Renner said that this experience helped inspire him to run for City Council.

“I’m just really thankful for, you know, the voters for turning out in good numbers and for voting me into City Council,” said Renner after the election.

Renner says his goals include appointing a City Manager, creating plans to develop housing for both potential renters and home-buyers, and creating policies that make Winooski a business friendly city.

“I think definitely my top priorities are the ARPA funds, and then after that housing. Housing is on everybody's mind, so I really want to start diving into that,” said Renner.

Hurd received the most votes in the race with a total of 426. Renner received 402. Of the remaining five candidates: Irene K Webster received 380 votes; Darrell Desautels received 143; Matt Crawford received 118; Chad Bushway received 114; and David Xavier Wallace received 90.

All three articles on the City of Winooski ballot passed—and all by healthy margins.

The passage of Article Two approves the budget for the City of Winooski in the amount of $8,714,885.16.

The passage of Article Three authorizes the City Council to apply for and accept funds from sources other than property taxation. It will not impact property taxes in Winooski.

Finally, the passage of Article Four approves the issuing of $1.3 million for the acquisition and equipping of a fire truck, along with related improvements for the city’s Fire Department.

Residents Approve School Budget and Re-Elect Dahal, Burlock, and Cleiland

Kamal Dahal, 29, won a three-year term on the school board against his opponent, David Xavier Wallace. He retained his position, winning 623 votes, compared to Wallace’s 200, according to city officials.

The two other candidates ran uncontested: Tori Cleiland, the current Board President, received 715 votes, and Allison Burlock received 698 votes. Burlock was appointed last year to the board.

Voters approved a 6 percent increase in the school budget from the previous year, including an 8 percent increase in pre-school spending, and a 6 percent increase in support services in the district.

In addition, voters allowed the lease of a new preschool property on Elm
Street, and approved close to $8 million in federal compensatory and special education funds.

“I’m very appreciative for the community for their confidence in me, judging by my previous one year of experience on the board,” Dahal said in an interview following the vote, “I’m really excited and thrilled for this opportunity and I am really looking forward to making a difference in bringing diverse community voices on the board decision-making table.”

The school board election was a hot issue for Winooski voters at the polls Tuesday.

Lauren Read, who voted for Dahal in Winooski, felt that passing the school budget was the most important issue on the ballot.

“Schools can use all of the help they can get with all the issues surrounding COVID and they need to make sure they have the money to support the students as best they can,” said Read, explaining why she voted for Dahal and the budget.

Voters approved the budget at a 621-294 margin, signaling a mandate for student equity and support with a nearly 25% increase in spending per pupil.

“I’m pleased that Winooski residents are showing that they’re willing to invest in the education of the youth in the city,” Burlock said of Tuesday’s election results.

Tori Cleiland agreed, expressing her “super huge gratitude to the community for passing the budget,” she continued, “we are leveraging those funds to allow our students to grow and become who they were meant to be.”

She said getting more kids into preschool, providing year-round bussing, and continuing anti-racist work will be a top priority in the coming term.

The re-elected trustees are beckoning a call for advocacy at home and in the legislature. All of the winning candidates signaled the importance of continuing anti-racist work and bringing student voices to the board.

In 2020, Winooski Students for Anti-Racism laid out demands to the board to address concerns about discrimination in the district.

The school board adopted seven of the eight demands at the time, citing legal concerns with a push to create an anti-racism committee.

Since then, several meetings have been conducted to discuss how to teach about discrimination in schools, and other questions like whether to maintain a school resource officer.

“I’m going to continue to listen and to participate in the activities that we do with the group called ‘Up for Learning,’” said Burlock, “I find anti-racism extremely important and I’m interested in continuing to work in any capacity that I can.”

The trustees also pointed to the importance of legislative action around pupil weighting that could benefit Winooski if approved.

The updated equalized per pupil formula is a proposal in the Vermont State legislature which would make adjustments to state funding and local property taxes for education and adjust for cost differences associated with student need.

The change is aimed at creating more equitable systems of support for students and adjusting per pupil costs to fit the needs of Vermont learners today, according to a study from the University of Vermont in Dec. 2019.

For a district like Winooski where 38% of students are English Language Learners, according to the Winooski School District report in 2018, additional support services could make a huge difference in educational outcomes.

Kamal Dahal said that because of the current pupil formula, “our school didn’t get enough of a budget as it frankly deserved.”

He’s strongly in favor of the change.

“I will be advocating for that and highlighting that to lawmakers on the state level,” Dahal said.

Burlock and Cleiland strongly agreed with Kamal.

“The language learning piece of it comes into play for Winooski. I think that might be the biggest piece of it,” said Burlock.

“We all deserve to be educated in a way that matches our learning style and matches where we’re coming from and where we’re going,” said Cleiland, “this funding piece absolutely impacts Winooski’s budget and how we educate our students.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated with further comment from the winning school board candidates on Friday, March 4, 2022.