(This story by Matt Hongoltz-Hetling first appeared in the Valley News on Nov. 7, 2017.)
[C]HELSEA — Voters in Chelsea and Tunbridge approved a proposal to merge into the newly created First Branch Unified School District.
The proposal, which passed 197-110 in Chelsea and 207-61 in Tunbridge, will close Chelsea’s high school in favor of choice for high school students.
Beginning July 1, First Branch will teach students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and will have a single budget overseen by a single school board made up of representatives from each of the two towns.
Voters at the polls in Chelsea on Tuesday evening said a Nov. 30 merger deadline imposed by the state under Act 46 was weighing heavily on their minds.
“A lot of people are scared about what the state will do,” Annette Johnson said, just after voting against the measure. Though she said she expected the merger to be approved, she didn’t like the loss of local control and the thought of busing more students, which she said would be more costly and less safe.
“If we don’t do it, the state is going to make us do something worse,” said Ben Canonica, a Chelsea contractor who voted in favor of the merger.
He said he felt local school officials had crafted a proposal that makes sense for the roughly 350 students in Chelsea and Tunbridge school districts.
The proposal was a modified version of a plan that was approved in both towns in April but was narrowly rejected on a petitioned revote in Tunbridge in June.
Members of a joint study committee said Chelsea and Tunbridge have a long history of collaboration in fielding sports teams, delivering pre-K education, and the Farm-to-School Program, among other ventures. They said the biggest challenge was reconciling Tunbridge’s tradition of high school choice with Chelsea’s 100-year history of operating its high school.
