[O]n Tuesday, Royalton voters reversed an April no vote on a school district merger with Bethel and Rochester, setting the stage for mergers in seven school districts.
Royalton voted 377 to 248 on Tuesday after a series of public meetings about the merger.
The plan for unifying Bethel, Rochester and Royalton school districts will go forward as long as Rochester voters uphold a yes vote when they go back to the polls next week.
Bethel resident Lisa Floyd, who was on the Act 46 study committee, was excited Tuesday night after the polls closed.
“This will do amazing things for educating kids in our communities, I’m pretty happy right now,” she said.
The students are the real winners in all this, according to Geo Honigford, a Royalton school board member who served on the Act 46 study committee.
“I think this is wonderful for kids,” Honigford said. “The town has decided to do something that will enhance their kids education by leaps and bounds this is the best thing to hit Royalton since sliced bread.”
Royalton voters rejected the same unification plan 460 to 203 in April. That sank merger proposals for six other towns in the White River region, including Rochester, Bethel, Chelsea, Tunbridge, Granville and Hancock.
In the spring, residents thought they had other options, Honigford.
“There were a lot of people who voted no the first time that I was really shocked voted no, but they thought there was another plan and it was no big deal to just say no,” he said.
Laurie Smith, a Royalton resident who campaigned for a revote, said she was really happy with the outcome. “The revote effort began after a number of community members came forward and shared they hadn’t fully understood Act 46 or the proposed model when they voted on April 11th,” she said.
The revote committee spent the last month answering questions and clarifying what other options Royalton might have, she added.
Floyd commended the residents and volunteers in Royalton who held community meetings and helped inform their neighbors since the last vote.
“I hope we can get back to the place we were at where the people in Rochester who supported the original plan understand the residents of Bethel and Royalton really see the value of working with Rochester,” she said.
The merger plan keeps the elementary students in their communities, sends middle school students to Bethel and high school students to Royalton. Under the plan, Rochester would offer an experiential learning course in environmental studies to secondary students.
Rochester voted for the plan in April. If they do so again, the unification will move forward in Royalton, Bethel and Rochester, and will make it possible for the two other mergers in Tunbridge and Chelsea, and Granville and Hancock to also move forward.
