[A] number of school districts are letting state officials and lawmakers know they oppose H.361 — the education governance bill voted out of the House last month now in the hands of the Senate Education Committee.
The House bill calls on the state’s 277 school districts to study partnerships with neighboring districts to form larger school systems of 1,100 pupils Pre-K-12 in an effort to control rising education spending and address the downward trend in enrollment that has seen the loss of 21,000 pupils since 1997.
The Senate Education Committee’s version is still taking shape, but already looks much different than the House bill. The Senate committee is looking to build in more generous voluntary merger incentives to entice districts to work together.
Under the Senate and House bills, the State Board of Education has the ultimate authority to force districts to form “sustainable governance structures,” and require that schools meet state quality, opportunity and fiscal standards by 2020.
Bill Talbott, deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Education, told the committee last week that the agency’s recommendations for stepped-up incentives and a longer period of voluntary compliance were linked to the feedback from school districts across the state. He said it is difficult to make school districts do things their boards don’t want to do, and cited several legislative mandates around supervisory union administration of transportation and special education that have been ignored by some districts.
The draft Senate bill would assign a tax penalty to districts that refuse to abide by laws passed by the Legislature.
Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, has called a public hearing on H.361 from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday in Room 11 of the Statehouse.
Stephen Dale, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said about a half-dozen resolutions from local boards and supervisory unions have been sent to the administration and lawmakers, expressing concern — and in some instances, strong opposition — to the House bill.
“I’d say the majority of these are basically saying there are challenges with the bill, and there are some people that say, ‘Don’t do anything, leave us alone.’ There are some school board members who say we’ve got to do something because the issues we have are very real. Most of them are reasonable in terms of ‘let’s find a pathway,’” Dale said of the response.
Marty Strange, a member of the citizens group Vermonters for Schools and Community, said more such resolutions are coming.
“I’d say you can expect to see more of these if the Senate bill gets to the floor as it is now drafted,” Strange said Friday. “People do not like the way the Legislature is headed toward taking schools and school boards out of the hands of communities.”
Local reaction
Here is a sampling of the resolutions adopted in recent weeks in opposition to H.361:
• North Country Supervisory Union, which serves the towns of Brighton, Charleston, Coventry, Derby, Ferdinand, Holland, Jay, Lowell, Morgan, Newport City, Newport Town, Troy and Westfield, adopted a resolution on March 19. “The NCSU Full Board hereby rejects H361 and any legislation that mandates consolidations, ends the small schools grant, hold harmless provisions and the imposition of any spending cap.”
• Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union adopted its resolution March 25, also at a full board meeting. It, too, highlights concern that the State Board of Education could ultimately “determine the existence of our local school boards.” The board opposes the spending cap in the bill, expresses concern about the phase-out of small schools grants and the hold harmless provision, referred to more commonly as “phantom students,” and all steps that “… will significantly harm direct service to our students.” Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union serves the towns of Leicester, Whiting, Sudbury, Brandon, Goshen, Pittsford, Mendon and Chittenden.
• The Windham Southeast Supervisory Union board sent a copy of the resolution it approved April 7 to Gov. Peter Shumlin, Windham County legislators, Agency of Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe and the State Board of Education, expressing concern over the spending cap provision in H.361, unfunded mandates and quality reviews by the Agency of Education. The resolution was sent by the towns of Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney and Vernon.
• The Stowe School District supports the alignment of Pre-K-12 school districts but is concerned about the spending cap, and is asking for a waiver process.
• The Peacham School Board wrote to Shumlin in a letter: “As you know, Peacham is a small town, with only just over 700 people. The school is the lifeblood of our community. Our students have a low drop-out rate, low teen pregnancy rate, and a high rate of success in academic achievement. That success is due in large part to the caring schools that are directly tied to our communities, with low student-teacher ratios that ensure that children are helped as individuals, rather than slipping through the cracks.”
• The Readsboro School Board wrote to the governor and lawmakers with the following message: “Small schools are the very heart of our rural communities; their activities bring the community together at ball games, ceremonies, fundraisers, talent shows, science fairs, open houses, concerts, and more. It’s where we meet for town meeting, vote, gather for a snowshoe races and funeral receptions; there’s BINGO, volleyball and art festivals.”
“In Readsboro our school building houses town offices and the town library – neither of which could support the building should the school close,” the board’s letter continues. “If Readsboro Central School were forced to close, it would devastate the town, taking away teachers, custodial, secretarial and food-service jobs — it would cause hardship, not offer more ‘opportunity’ to our children.”
• Three communities — Brattleboro, Newark and Plainfield — adopted resolutions at their annual town meetings in March. Brattleboro, “Resolved that the Members of the Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting do not support efforts by the Vermont State Legislature to empower the State Board of Education to determine the existence of the Brattleboro Town School Board. In Newark voters approved the following resolution: “We, the voters of Newark, would like the legislature to know we are in strong support of our extraordinary school with its beautiful building and grounds, shared resources, exemplary staff, technology, after-school program and community support and believe that bigger is not always better.” Plainfield voters issued the following message: “After hearing our District Representative Janet Ancel (D-Calais) speak on the consolidation bill, the Town should respond by saying we are not in favor of losing our school or local school board.”
• A member of the Whiting School Board and the RNESU board, Carol Brigham spoke to the lawmakers this week. Brigham’s now grown daughter, Amanda, was the plaintiff in the landmark Vermont Supreme Court decision, Brigham vs. State of Vermont, in which the court ruled the state’s educational funding system was unconstitutional because it allowed students in towns with higher property values access to more education funding. The case led to current education funding law passed in 1997, Act 60, known as the “equal educational opportunity act.”
“It was unfortunate that a young child from a property poor town needed to go to court and challenge the state to prove that our old school funding system was wrong,” Brigham said. “It is also unfortunate that now the state had had to recognize this; many feel the need to continue to create legislation when all we need is sound leadership and ample support from the state, mainly through the Agency of Education, not legislation that dismantles our communities.
“I encourage you, as you look at legislation that affects our children and community schools, do not label us and do not create unneeded upheaval,” she said. “Equity, efficiency, and quality need to be addressed along with our community’s values and capacity. The Agency of Education needs the appropriate resources to support our school communities in positive changes to our systems and sufficient time is needed,” she said.
The State Board of Education also recently weighed in, recommending that school districts continue to study and implement the consolidation of services and that the state offer incentive grants and technical support.
