In response to the votes, Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, chairman of the House Education Committee, described Tuesday as “a great day for Vermont students.”
Communities strongly endorsed the Rutland Northeast merger — a side-by-side unification plan that incorporates districts that operate all grades with districts that pay tuition for their students to attend schools elsewhere. In Chittenden and Mendon, where students are tuitioned in grades nine through 12, residents voted 351-7 in favor of merging.
Nicole Mace, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said the overwhelming approval in the communities that tuition students “illustrates the flexibility that has been built into Act 46 to accommodate the variety of structures that we have across the state.”
Overall, 988 Rutland Northeast voters were in favor of merging, with 191 against it. Members of the House education panel called it “tremendous” and “stunning” when they met Wednesday morning.
The Elmore-Morrisville unification plan had been rejected by voters in November, a result many blamed on misunderstandings swirling in the communities. Afterward, revotes were planned for both towns, and Superintendent Tracy Wrend and others have made a concerted effort to answer the concerns.
Late last month, Elmore voted 258-180 to merge. Tuesday, voters in Morrisville also approved the proposed unification, 448-304.
Speaker of the House Shap Smith, whose home district is Morrisville, said the result shows that Act 46, the law driving school district mergers, is working. “It responds to the concerns of the people of Elmore with regard to their property taxes and the cost of education and solidifies the enrollment for the Morrisville school system. The community themselves made the decision about their way forward, and that is what Act 46 is all about,” he said.
Elmore and Morrisville won’t realize the tax incentives found in Act 46, but they anticipate cost savings from merging.
Communities that merged into the Rutland Northeast unified union will get an 8-cent tax cut because the combined entity will be operational by July 1.
They won’t qualify for a 10-cent tax incentive because they chose a side-by-side model that is part of Act 156 and didn’t adopt the accelerated preferred model for a 900-student unit with simplified governance that is promoted in the first phase of Act 46.
Rutland Northeast will not be subject to the allowable growth rate for spending this year because it will have no prior year per-pupil spending data on which to make that comparison, according to Mace.
Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, said the votes showed a growing appetite for change.
“I think the community in Elmore-Morrisville and Rutland Northeast looked hard at what they would gain as a result of unification and they liked what they could see,” said Francis.
“(Tuesday’s) voting results were a positive sign that momentum is building in communities in support of change,” he added.
Smith said he saw this as further evidence that school boards are taking Act 46 seriously “and are embracing the fact that it is time for a change after 125 years.”
At the State Board of Education’s meeting in Montpelier on Tuesday, it officially approved four accelerated merger plans put forward by the Addison Northwest, Lamoille North, Franklin Central and Addison-Rutland supervisory unions. That brings to eight the number of unification plans the board has approved.
“It reflects a lot of hard work by the study committees to put forward a plan that better meets the needs of students and taxpayers, and the voters’ overwhelming support of that in both votes (Tuesday) is very encouraging,” Mace said.
After hearing the results of the voting and state board decisions, Rep. Emily Long, D-Newfane, smiled and said, “It is what I always said: There are really good conversations going on and people are excited about doing something for the kids.”
An explanation of Act 46, including the merger process, can be found here.
Rutland Northeast consolidation vote
Brandon: 269 yes; 87 no
Whiting: 51 yes; 16 no
Sudbury: 72 yes; 21 no
Goshen: 30 yes; 9 no
Leicester: 59 yes; 12 no
Pittsford: 156 yes; 39 no
Mendon: 121 yes; 4 no
Chittenden: 230 yes; 3 no
