A one-vote margin in the town of Wells shot down two merger proposals, representing half of the failed votes.
In all, 57 towns voted on school district mergers Tuesday; 38 approved plans to build larger governance units in accordance with Act 46 and other statutes. One town, Plymouth, ended up postponing its vote.
With 62 percent of the votes cast going to approve mergers Tuesday, six new unified districts will be created, according to the Agency of Education.
Mergers votes were successful in Addison-Rutland, Bennington-Rutland, Windsor Central and many parts of the NEK. Unification votes were unsuccessful in Rutland Central, Rutland Southwest and Windham Northeast. One proposal in Windham Central received voters’ backing, while another did not.
Two Northeast Kingdom mergers will bring together eight towns into the Kingdom East School District and nine towns into the NEK Choice School District.
Sen. Philip Baruth, D-Chittenden, who chairs the Senate Committee on Education, said the results in the Kingdom were the bright spot of the night. All the towns involved said yes to the Kingdom East district. One, Lemington, opted out of the Choice district.
Critics of Act 46 and its predecessors, 153 and 156, have said the laws kill school choice and don’t work in rural areas. “It doesn’t get any more rural or geographically isolated than the NEK,” Baruth said, adding, “and they set it up to preserve school choice.”
A number of proposals that voters weighed in on Tuesday listed more towns as “advisory” than in the past. Advisory towns can opt out of a merger without sinking it for others, as happens if a town deemed “necessary” decides not to go along. Modified unified unions can be formed when four or more towns choose to join up.
On Tuesday, 13 towns voted against joining with their neighbors, altering three unifications into modified unified unions, and four mergers failed because of no votes.
Wells was involved in votes in Rutland Central and Rutland Southwest, where all the towns were listed as necessary. Voters in Poultney, Proctor and West Rutland agreed to join, as did Middletown Springs, but because of just one no vote in Wells, both mergers failed.
“There have been a number of successful revotes where people wake up, look at the new map and say, maybe it is better to join in … or why were we against it, maybe we should reconsider,” Baruth said.
Other towns voting against merging Tuesday included Cambridge (voting no for the second time), Orwell (voting no for a third time), Fair Haven, Wardsboro, Marlboro, Athens, Grafton, Westminster, Barnard and Reading.
Margaret MacLean, a critic of Act 46, said there isn’t enough flexibility in the law around merger options for a large number of towns in Vermont. “Currently, there are 93 towns who are not finding solutions under the one-size-fits-all rules available in Act 46. It is likely that by the end of voting this spring that this number will reach 100 or more school districts,” she said.
The Senate Committee on Education is drafting language for a bill that will add a few more options for school districts that want to merge. Baruth said he is hopeful the legislation will capture most places that have been struggling to merge.
“The language we are looking at gives more flexibility timewise, structure-wise and (on student counts) — a combination that may help some of these communities take another look,” Baruth said.
Last year on Town Meeting Day, five mergers went forward. Act 46 study committees have been striving to find ways to bring school districts together to address declines in student enrollments and other problems.
“This is a really difficult process,” said Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, of the demands Act 46 makes on communities. “I admire the work of study committees and school boards across the state, and I trust voters to understand what needs to be done for educating kids in their communities, and to do the best they can to do that.”
Nicole Mace, head of the Vermont School Boards Association, commended the volunteers who brought the proposals to the voters this week.
“As you can see by yesterday’s historic results, Vermont’s school board members have risen to the challenges posed by declining enrollment, rising costs, leadership turnover, and growing inequality in student opportunity, and are charting a positive course forward for public education in Vermont,” she said.
Here is a rundown of district merger votes:
• The Kingdom East School District will be formed, as voters approved merging in Concord (141-16), Lunenburg (88-84), Burke (215-64), Lyndon (199-72), Newark (76-16), Sutton (115-40), Sheffield (66-11) and Wheelock (73-34). The seven school boards and two supervisory union boards will be streamlined into one entity that operates local pre-K through eighth grade schools. High school students have school choice and can attend local private schools. There is an interest in offering public school choice among the elementary schools.
• The NEK Choice district was approved in all but Lemington, where 23 residents voted against it and only seven for it. Still, nine rural towns will merge into one large school choice district. The breakdown: East Haven (55-13), Granby (21-1), Guildhall (61-6), Kirby (81-8), Maidstone (43-2), Victory (53-19), Bloomfield (passed no vote count), Brunswick (14-11) and Norton (18-7). Students in these towns attend 20 schools in Vermont and other states.
• The Taconic and Green Regional School District will become a reality now that nine towns from the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union voted yes to merging. Voters in Danby (272-73), Dorset (224-109), Manchester (577-258), Mount Tabor (26-2), Sunderland (134-67) and the Mountain Towns Regional Education District (Londonderry: 167-16; Landgrove: 37-2; Peru: 62-5; and Weston: 97-8) agreed Tuesday. One board will operate five lower-grades schools. All students will have school choice for grades nine through 12.
• Orwell (219-139) and Fair Haven (220-208) rejected the merger plan for Addison-Rutland Supervisory Union towns. However, the Slate Valley district will still form with four of the remaining towns. The supporting towns were Benson (122-54), Castleton (360-290), Hubbardton (98-27) and West Haven (41-22).
• Voters in the Windsor Central Supervisory Union towns of Bridgewater (98 to 37), Pomfret (125-16), Killington (233-88) and Woodstock (444 to 155) will merge into a modified unified union with a single school board. Plymouth, a town from a different supervisory union known as Two Rivers, had also meant to vote, but it was postponed. Barnard and Reading voted against merging, 155 to 103 and 135 to 64, respectively.
• In Windham Central Supervisory Union, four towns will form a modified unified union: Jamaica (97-14), Townshend (93-40), Brookline (62-22) and Newfane (194-70). Windham voted against merging with them (74-66).
• Voters decided against a second Windham Central merger. The measure passed in Dover (124 to 75) but failed in Wardsboro (79-62) and Marlboro (264-66).
• One of the plans that needed Wells’ participation was supported by voters in Poultney (263-162), Proctor (207-87) and West Rutland (163-117). The Quarry Valley district would have operated schools for all grades pre-kindergarten through 12.
• Voters in Middletown Springs said yes (242-55) to a merger with Wells to form the Wells Springs School District, but the 147-146 rejection in Wells tanked the unification. The Wells Spring group would have operated two pre-K-through-six schools and tuitioned students in grades seven through 12.
• A Windham Northeast merger was rejected by voters in Athens (73-10), Grafton (156-81) and Westminster (436-155), although it passed in Rockingham by a vote of 283 to 191. The plan was to combine five school districts operating seven schools into one district with a single board. School choice would have gone away for middle-schoolers, and there was a campaign against unification in Westminster.
• Cambridge’s revote failed 309 to 219. The town will not be joining the Lamoille North Modified Unified District, which was formed last spring.