Champlain Valley School District (CVSD) encompasses six schools that serve the towns of Hinesburg, Williston, Shelburne, Charlotte and St. George. With about 3,660 students total, CVSD is Vermont’s largest school district.

Approximately 1,250 students attend CVU, the district’s high school, with another 2,350 students attending our PreK-8 sending schools: Allen Brook, Williston Central School, Shelburne Community School, Charlotte Central School and Hinesburg Community School.

CVSD has long been known as an educationally progressive organization that benefits from a community that recognizes the vital importance of public education. While our schools almost always rank at or near the top of academic achievement statewide, our most important measure is the engagement of our students and their capacity for giving back to the community at large.

At our high school, 93% of students agree or strongly agree that they can take courses and electives that they are interested in, while the same percentage agree or strongly agree that they receive support and have access to opportunities that will prepare them for plans after high school. These figures directly correlate to CVSD’s college placement and graduation rates, which significantly exceed statewide and national averages. 

CVSD student engagement extends beyond the classroom, too, with an incredibly robust and active offering of extracurriculars. Our six schools offer more than 150 clubs and afterschool programs and, district-wide, approximately 1,800 students participate on 89 sports teams, a large number of which earned state championship titles each year.

CVSD students continue to do notably well, regularly exceeding statewide and national averages in rates for attendance, graduation and college placement, and on standardized and benchmark assessments.

• 96% of CVU students graduate in four years. (Compare to national average 87%)
• 70% of CVU students go on to attend college. (Compare to statewide average 45%)
• 87% of CVSD students scored proficient or above on standardized literacy assessments.

Beyond this, CVSD’s continuous improvement plan demonstrates our dedication to improving outcomes in math, intervention and student voice and choice in education. 

Learn more about CVSD student achievement at www.cvsdvt.org/assessment-data

Aligning with statewide trends, student enrollment at CVSD has declined recently. Between 2019 and 2024, this decline has measured approximately 7%. Based on CVSD’s demographic projections, this decline is expected to continue.

Unlike enrollment, CVSD's weighted student count has increased. This figure is key in Vermont's education funding formula and adjusts student counts based on needs and circumstances such as students experiencing poverty or those who are English language learners.

On or before Tuesday, March 3, 2026, voters will be asked to approve one budget for all public schooling in Champlain Valley School District (CVSD). CVSD includes Charlotte, St. George, Williston, Shelburne, and Hinesburg. This ballot and vote is separate from each town’s municipal budget.

Ballots will be available for early and absentee voting beginning mid February. You can request a ballot by phone, email or in person at your town office, or you can request your ballot online at sos.vermont.gov/elections.

Ballots will not automatically be mailed.

The following are each town’s polling place on Town Meeting Day, which is Tuesday, March 3, 2026:

Charlotte - Charlotte Town Hall
Hinesburg - Hinesburg Town Hall
Shelburne - Shelburne Town Center, Gymnasium
Williston - Williston Armory
St. George - St. George Town Hall

Day-of voter registration is available at all polling places.

Residents will vote by Australian ballot at their local polling places (see above) on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, or you can request a ballot early by phone, email or in person at your town office, or online at sos.vermont.gov/elections.

Ballots will not automatically be mailed.

Day-of voter registration is available at all polling places.

Voted ballots are brought to a central location and co-mingled (all ballots are mixed together) before being counted by officials from each town’s Board of Civil Authority. One of the agreements in our Act 46 consolidation that was signed by the Vermont Secretary of State is that we will co-mingle the ballots before they are counted. It is therefore not possible to separate the counts by town.

Yes. Join us for the CVSD Budget Informational Meeting on Monday, March 2, at 5 pm at CVU. It will also be possible to join remotely via Zoom.

The Common Level of Appraisal, or CLA, adjusts the locally assessed property values to the estimated fair market value based on an analysis of recent sale prices. The CLA ensures that each Vermont town is treated equally and uniformly, regardless of when they last appraised. 

The CLA is determined by the state, is impacted by the recency of town-wide appraisals and therefore differs by town. The CLA is why tax rates vary by town.

The statewide homestead yield was estimated at $8,849 in the December 1 letter issued by the Department of Taxes. This produces an equalized education homestead tax rate of $1.66 (per $100 of property value) for CVSD towns. The final yield will not be known until the spring when it is approved by the legislature and the governor. Actual tax rates are adjusted further for a Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) in each town.

Your property tax bill includes a municipal component and an education component, which comprises the majority of your tax bill. See the Vermont Department of Taxes FAQs page for more information.

Nearly half of all residents of Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George, and Williston qualify for an income-based property tax credit. In 2025, 44% of CVSD households received an average property tax credit of $2,244. You may be eligible if your household income is less than $115,400. 

To learn more about the eligibility requirements and to apply for a tax reduction, contact the Vermont Department of Taxes. 

www.tax.vermont.gov/property/property-tax-credit or (802) 828-2505.

Vermont Public’s video explainer and glossary of terms is a great place to start. Here are additional resources from the state:

• Education Tax Rate FAQ
• Frequently Asked Questions About Pupil Weights in Vermont's Education Funding Formula and Act 127 (2022) Changes

Vermont’s unique system of education funding combines a statewide formula with local property tax administrations—48 states fund their schools differently. In Vermont, school boards set local budgets that voters approve or reject, and state agencies and the legislature set the education tax rates and property tax adjustments that guarantee the total sum of approved education spending in the state. Residents then pay into this fund through property taxes, with other revenue including sales and use tax also contributing. 

In short, each district’s education property tax rate is impacted by every Vermont district’s spending decisions.

Act 127, as passed in 2022, was designed to provide more resources to schools to support students with higher needs, in particular multilingual students, those experiencing poverty, smaller schools, and rural schools.

• It does this by giving more “weight” to students in these categories in the calculation that determines our education taxes.
• Districts with comparably higher percentages of students in these categories are “tax-advantaged” by the new law, those with fewer, such as CVSD, are considered “tax-disadvantaged” by the law.
• Due to H.850’s recent passage, CVSD will receive a 15¢ “discount” this year pre-CLA because we’re tax-disadvantaged by the law. That discount will decrease by 20% yearly for the next two years. CVSD is the second-highest impacted district in the state.

The Vermont legislature sets education tax rates based on how much money is required to generate enough property tax revenue to support the state’s school budgets as approved by voters after all other sources of revenue to the education fund are accounted for. 

Learn more from Vermont’s Education Tax Rate FAQs.

School boards set local school budgets, and voters and taxpayers vote on these local budgets and pay education taxes. 

State agencies and the legislature set education tax rates, calculate property tax adjustments and estimate the fair market value of real estate (the CLA).