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—whether through work in the classroom or raising upwards of $50,000 annually for Special Olympics Vermont during the Penguin Plunge. 

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, as well as scores on VTCAP, SATs and AP tests.

• 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 third graders scored proficient or above in literacy on the 2025 spring i-Ready assessment
• 75% of CVSD fourth graders scored proficient or above in literacy on the 2025 VTCAP.
• 70% of CVSD third graders scored proficient or above in math on the 2025 spring i-Ready assessment. 

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 is on the rise. 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 https://mvp.vermont.gov/. When selecting the date range, enter 01/01/2026-12/31/2026. 

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

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 https://mvp.vermont.gov/. Ballots will not automatically be mailed.

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.

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. 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, not by the school district. 

Towns assess property values at different intervals, which causes town-by-town variability between assessed property values and fair market values. The CLA therefore varies by town, which is why tax rates vary by town, even within the same district.

Property tax rates are based not on the district’s budget increase but on the change in the “cost per weighted pupil.” Because we have a statewide education finance system, the tax rate is also based on statewide education spending.

Local tax rates are also influenced by the CLA or Common Level of Appraisal. The CLA adjusts locally assessed property values to estimated fair market value. 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, not the school board.

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 receive a property tax credit based on their income. That means these homeowners pay less than the general estimates provided for tax impacts. In 2025, 44% of CVSD households received an average property tax credits of $2,244.

You may be eligible for property tax relief if your household income is less than a certain amount, which the state will release in late 2025. 

To apply for a tax reduction, contact the Vermont Department of Taxes at www.tax.vermont.gov/property/property-tax-credit or call 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).