[T]he State Board of Education this week approved two more school district merger proposals that will go before voters on May 2.
Several laws passed by the Legislature require towns to have conversations about voluntarily merging into larger school districts to deal with a significant loss of students across the state.
Act 46 requires towns to meet and consider merging into larger school districts. Unification plans must be submitted to the state board and then must be approved by voters.
Communities are in the second phase of this process and the proposals are becoming more complicated and sometimes serve fewer students than past mergers.
Northfield, Williamstown
The Northfield and Williamstown school districts that operate all grades pre-K-12 would like to unite as one side of what is called a side-by side merger. The other side would be made up of Orange and Washington School Districts that operate K-8 schools and tuition out high school students.
Northfield is from a different supervisory union, Washington South, than the other three towns that are all members of the Orange North Supervisory Union. If the merger is approved by voters the districts would temporarily be assigned to Orange North for help with the transition.
They expect to save $250,000 a year from the central office, $300,000 annually from better coordinated high school programs and $710,000 over five years from joint contracts and purchasing.
Combined, the two districts would serve 1,500 students.
A decline in enrollments has led to fewer electives and too few students for core courses in the Northfield and Williamstown high schools.
If voters approve the Northfield and Williamstown merger, they will form the Central Vermont Unified Union School District. The study committee asked lawmakers to allow them to become their own school district even if the other side doesn’t merge. They said the two towns share similar demographics, educational philosophies and have good sporting relations.
Rama Schneider, a Williamstown School Board member, said the merged district would improve the school system. “We would save money in the long run and be a better educational model for students,” Schneider said.
On the other side of the proposed merger, Orange and Washington plan to restructure the elementary schools so one would teach children in grades pre-K through four and the other would teach grades five through eight. Both districts tuition to high school.
The towns are trying to keep both buildings open because they are the heart of each community, according to Alan Small, chair of their Act 46 Study Committee. Small said that his sixth grader has been in school with the same 12 kids. “These small schools are one reason why this proposal is more sustainable,” Small said.
The six member, consolidated school board will have three people from each town. They expect to save around $84,000 a year from a combined central office, $145,000 a year from restructuring and $100,000 over five years through shared contracting and purchasing.
Andover, Cavendish, Chester
The other proposal the board approved on Tuesday would bring together several school districts in the Twin Rivers Supervisory Union and the Green Mountain Unified School District.
The new merged district would operate all grades pre-K through 12.
There are 12 school districts in the Twin Rivers Supervisory Union with four different operating models. The merger plan would join Andover, Cavendish, Chester, the Chester-Andover union elementary school district and Green Mountain Union High School District into one district with one school board. Voters in Baltimore, where preK-12 students are tuitioned out, will also vote to merge, but would have to agree to stop tuitioning students and instead attend schools in the new district.
The study committee plans to offer school choice inside the new district and said the towns might create theme schools.
Sebastian Frank, chair of the study committee, said the plan will allow them to be more flexible when it comes to staffing the schools and programs who will all have a single employer. It also will allow for more foreign languages, theater and music.
Even if voters in Baltimore reject the merger it can go forward, as long as the other towns residents agree. But in order to get some tax breaks at least four school districts have to merge, and although here are two pre-K school districts involved in the Green Mountain proposal, if Baltimore drops out, they would not qualify. The study group said they would seek a waiver if this happens.
Even so, the new school district with Baltimore would only serve about 700 students. The study group admitted that this might mean the district won’t be big enough to provide more opportunities to students and protect against economic downturns or growing special education rolls.
Frank shared some “pearls of wisdom” with members of the state board that he garnered from 18 months leading his Act 46 study committee through difficult discussions.
“People can get pretty emotional about this stuff,” Frank said. “I feel like one aspect of this whole process that maybe overlooked is that democracy is more than just voting. It is about having conversations with people with whom you must work with but with whom you may disagree and then have that conversation again, and again, and again, and try to come to a resolution. That is hard work but it makes us stronger for it.”
