Agency presents foundation-funding prototype; consultant says plan can expand services while trimming some costs

Secretary of Education Zoe Saunders briefed four joint legislative committees on a prototype budgeting exercise showing how the governor’s proposed foundation funding formula could translate into district budgets, and consultant Nate Levinson told lawmakers the formula could fund more student supports and higher teacher pay while producing savings from shared services and reduced central-office costs.

The presentation mattered because the governor’s transformation proposal would change how Vermont funds and governs public schools statewide; Levinson walked lawmakers through a hypothetical 12,000‑student district built to match statewide demographics and said the proposed funding level would allow significant new investments in intervention, mental‑health supports and teacher compensation while leaving room for local choices about staffing and school structure.

Levinson, a consultant with New Solutions K–12 who has advised districts nationally and in Vermont, said he used the “adjusted EB model” (the evidence‑based adjustments that underpin the foundation formula) to calculate available funding for a prototypical district. Using those assumptions, he said the sample district would have roughly $237 million to spend and that consolidating central offices and sharing staff across schools could free “about $7 million” to reinvest in classrooms. Levinson also said his plan could support a $10,000 pay increase per teacher in the early years (he noted the adjusted EB model anticipates a $5,000 increase and said his allocation used the formula’s salary assumptions), expand intervention and mental‑health staffing beyond the EB model, and fund two in‑district K–12 magnet pathways.

Levinson described four…