[A]ct 46 was written for Orleans Central Supervisory Union, according to Amy Leroux, a member of the area’s merger study committee.
“I think the Orleans Central Supervisory Union has been positioning itself unintentionally for Act 46 for a number of years,” Leroux, of Irasburg, told the State Board of Education. The proposed merger of seven towns with six elementary schools, a union high school and a decade-old universal pre-kindergarten program got the board’s approval Tuesday.
Leroux said that after the Vermont School Boards Association presented what was in Act 46 at an August meeting, her supervisory union decided to “shoot for the moon” and try for an accelerated merger of districts for Albany, Barton, Brownington, Glover, Irasburg, Lake Region Union High School, Orleans and Westmore because it seemed to be the next logical step. The supervisory union serves 1,100 students.
“We get the students together in preschool, and they are together in high school. We just needed to bring the middle spectrum together,” Leroux said. The conversation quickly changed from school districts talking about their children to caring about all children, she said.
The prescience of Act 46 seemed to be a theme at Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting, where four accelerated unification plans were approved to move forward with voters. Orleans Central was joined by Chittenden South, Franklin Northeast and Washington West in presenting their plans to the board.
All will need to be approved by voters by June 7 and operating by July 2017 to be eligible for the tax breaks that go along with accelerated mergers.
“We have a really long tradition of working collaboratively,” said Colleen MacKinnon, a member of the Chittenden South study committee. “It really started with the Act 60 legislation, which allowed us for the first time in our supervisory union to have conversations across school district boundaries.”
This is the fourth study committee on governance for the area that includes Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, Williston and St. George. Since 1997, the group of school districts has joined together to coordinate curriculum, negotiate teacher contracts, hire directors of curriculum and technology, and hold carousel-style meetings where all the school boards meet on the same night in the same location.
The proposed Champlain Valley School District includes these five towns and six schools and 4,000 students. It is to be governed by a 12-member board.
But, ultimately, the proposed district may include just four towns, because St. George School District has been deemed advisable and not necessary. This means that if voters in St. George decide not to join in the merger, it can still go forward with the other towns.
St. George doesn’t operate a school. It contracts with the Williston School District to teach its kindergarten through eighth-grade students and provides school choice at the high school level. Ninety percent of those students choose to go to Champlain Valley Union High School, according to Kelly Bowen, the school board director for St. George.
The benefit of a merger for St. George? “We will have a vote,” said Bowen. “Right now, I’m a school board director of essentially a skeleton school board. We sign a contract, review payments monthly — essentially I pay bills.” She sees unification as a way for St. George to gain a formal role in a more formal school district.
Bowen’s district would also benefit financially from a merger. Two years ago she had to tell the town it was facing a big increase. “We don’t have a discussion. There is nothing I can do. I tell them our costs are going up,” she said.
The Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union proposal brings together the towns of Enosburgh and Richford — which operate kindergarten through 12th grade — with Bakersfield, Berkshire and Montgomery — each of which operates kindergarten through eighth grade and tuitions students in grades nine through 12. There would be five elementary-middle schools and two high schools in this configuration working under one school board.
Bakersfield and Montgomery school districts are considered advisable, so if voters in those towns choose not to join the union, then they could no longer pursue an accelerated merger, but they could still qualify for a regional education district or a conventional merger depending on the outcome at the polls.
Washington West Supervisory Union’s planned merger was also given the green light to go to the voters. It would bring together six towns and eight school districts under one umbrella: the Harwood Unified Union School District.
Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield and Warren school districts operate elementary schools and send their seventh- and eighth-graders to Harwood Union Middle School. Duxbury and Waterbury operate Thatcher Brook Primary School, with kindergarten through fourth grade, and Crossett Brook Middle School, with fifth through eighth. All six communities feed into Harwood Union High School in Duxbury.
The new district would operate five elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school directed by one school board.
In this proposal all the school districts are considered advisable, so it will take a yes vote by all the towns for this merger to go forward. There is a contingency plan for a modified unified union school district if all the towns don’t endorse the merger plan.
Getting the word out in their respective communities will be the next big push for these study committee members.
Orleans officials have already had some forums to let voters know about their merger options. Laroux said they are so committed to this plan that if it doesn’t pass the first time they will keep bringing it back to the community until it does.
