GMUSD budget articles pass by varying margins

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

There were two ballots given to voters in Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester on Tuesday. The pair were proposed by the Green Mountain Unified School District but while they both passed, their vote totals were wildly different.

The first was asked voters if a $357,395 surplus could be put into a reserve account earmarked for work on the district’s facilities which were the focus of a $20 million bond issue that failed a few years back. But here, the result was overwhelmingly positive. Voters affirmed the idea by a vote of 632 to 172.

On the other hand, GMUSD proposed a budget of $18.6 million, which squeaked by with a 43 vote margin – 425 to 382.  That’s reminiscent of the 47 vote margin by which the above mentioned bond failed in 2022. For many years, education votes passed easily. But today, the budget votes remain tight for a number of reasons beyond actual dollars. Schools are seeing they have to find their ways through the issues that drive voters to accept or reject their proposals.

Overall, the number of votes cast in each of the four GM towns were:

• Andover – 89
• Baltimore – 26
• Cavendish – 216
• Chester – 482

There were 10 blank ballots for the surplus vote and 6 blank ballots for the budget vote.