“The numbers are preliminary, but all were so overwhelming that the merger passed in every town by at least a 2-to-1 margin,” said Jon Wilson, chairman of the study committee, on Tuesday. “Sunderland had the lowest margin, at 67 percent.”
The strong support throughout the nine towns “showed that voters were confident in the plan we brought before them,” he said.
The towns involved are Manchester, Dorset, Londonderry, Danby, Sunderland, Mount Tabor, Landgrove, Peru and Weston.
Wilson said all 13 members of a new regional school board that will oversee the Taconic and Green district were elected unopposed. The board, which will replace individual town or district boards as of July 1, 2018, includes four members elected at large and nine town representatives.
“We are fortunate to have some great people on this board,” Wilson said.
Over the next year, the board will meet to plan for the transition and hammer out policies and procedures for the new regional district.
The process that led up to this proposal involved multiple well-attended meetings of a study group with representatives from the nine towns over the course of a year. The school district merger is proposed under the Act 46 format and won approval in December from the State Board of Education.
Supporters of the merger plan pointed to the advantages of a larger kindergarten through eighth grade system in which resources can be more efficiently allocated and a wider range of programs can be offered. The district will have about 1,700 students.
Students from the district will have school choice in grades nine through 12.
