Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories looking at how the issue of school choice is complicating the push for districts to merge.
[T]ension over Act 46 boiled over in Strafford last week. The community — which operates an elementary school and pays tuition for students in the upper grades — has to pick its merger dance partners by the end of the month, and a step in any direction means losing something big, according to Strafford School Board Chair Erik Goodling.
Frustrated by the update they received at town meeting, residents reacted by unanimously supporting a resolution calling for the repeal of Act 46. When asked for objections to the resolution, Goodling said, there was complete silence and “it was really nice to hear.”
Strafford provides kindergarten through eighth grade at the Newton School, then pays tuition for high school students.
Goodling said Strafford designates the independent Thetford Academy as its public high school and allows parents the choice of any other approved independent or public school.
Keeping this flexibility is extremely important to his community, Goodling said, as is keeping all the grades currently taught at the Newton School.
“Some people are saying the most important thing is to maintain our K-8 school. Other people are saying the most important thing is to maintain choice,” he said.
While the town has a number of suitors, for a merger, choosing one comes at a price.
Strafford is part of the new White River Valley Supervisory Union that is looking at reorganizing to comply with Act 46. In July, the Orange-Windsor Supervisory Union merged with Windsor Northwest Supervisory Union, which spans a great swath of Vermont from Hancock and Granville to Sharon and Strafford.
Although Strafford has been exploring several merger options, White River Valley has decided to pursue a 10-town side-by-side unification plan. The model requires that pairs of alike districts be available to partner with other pairs, and at least one of the couplings must operate all grades.
The deadline for Strafford to commit is looming and making the community uncomfortable.
“Strafford has to decide whether to join by April. That is coming up in a hurry, and nobody likes it. … This is too soon. This is not the way to make good decisions — with a gun to your head,” Goodling said.
Of the towns in the side-by-side merger, two do not operate a school. Four do a mix of operating and tuitioning: Tunbridge and Strafford have kindergarten through eighth grade schools; Sharon and Stockbridge have kindergarten through sixth. According to the State Board of Education, existing statute does not allow school districts to pay tuition for a grade they also operate.
Only two options exist for these four towns: All four operate kindergarten through sixth grade schools and tuition the older students to schools of their families’ choosing, or operate K through sixth and designate a middle and high school.
This means Strafford would have to stop offering 7th and 8th grades at the school it operates and could lose its ability to designate tuitioned students to Thetford Academy.
The designation is important because it provides protection for special education students, according to Goodling, because when an independent school is a designated it is required to take all students.
Residents of Strafford say the other considerations are distasteful. “There are several options on the table, but every one of them comes at a cost. None of them is particularly savory,” Goodling said.
Adding to the pressure, whatever Strafford decides to do affects Tunbridge — the other district that operates the same grades — and vice versa.
“If Strafford makes one decision, it forces Tunbridge to make another. Strafford and Tunbridge are linked — whatever one does, the other gets affected,” Goodling said.
Strafford is also working on a study with Sharon and Thetford that would result in the Three Rivers School District. Norwich had been part of this study group until the state decided it wasn’t a viable option. In this one, Strafford would have to give up grades 7th and 8th, because it would be impossible for Sharon to start operating those two grades.
Another possibility Strafford has explored would be to partner with Sharon and Tunbridge as a stand-alone regional education district. This would be the most expensive option available, but it also offers more autonomy and direct control at the supervisory union level, according to Goodling.
The only option they don’t have is to do nothing. “If we are going to play by the law as it stands right now, then we are going to have to make one of these decisions,” Goodling said.
He and others in similar situations question the logic put forth by agents of the state when they say Act 46 does not require or force any school district to give up choice or shut down grade levels.
“‘Force’ is an interesting choice of words,” Goodling said. “In order to meet the demands of Act 46 and receive tax incentives, or maintain our small schools grants, we are going to have to make those choices. There are deadlines attached to make those deadlines and make those choices. We are either going to have to give up our designation model or give up our seventh and eighth grades. None of those options lets us maintain our operating structure.”
While lawmakers worry they would encourage “easy outs” if they consider Act 46 amendments regarding tuition that are sitting in the House Education Committee, Goodling is adamant that isn’t what the requests are about.
“I have no problem making some tough choices,” he said, “but I want to be able to see that the tough choices will make my school better. I have an excellent school that serves all my children well, and somehow being forced to not have a seventh- and eighth-grade program is going to make it better? How does that benefit anybody?”
