[S]OUTH BURLINGTON — The South Burlington School District and town residents who favor retaining the town high school’s controversial high school “Rebels” mascot will have an opportunity to take their respective cases to the state Supreme Court.
At issue in the case is not the fate of the mascot itself — the high school sports teams now call themselves the Wolves — but whether the school board had the right to deny a petition by citizens to put the matter directly to voters.
Citizens who supported retaining the Rebels circulated a petition last year, requesting that the School Board put the matter of the mascots directly to South Burlington voters. Petitioners collected the signatures of 5 percent of registered voters in South Burlington. The school board denied the petition.
In a ruling in December, Vermont Superior Court Judge Robert Mello wrote that by denying the petition, the School Board denied the petitioners’ right under the Vermont Constitution to “instruct their Representatives.”
“The clear purpose of these rights is to assure that the people of South Burlington will have an opportunity to play a central role in determining what is in their own best interests,” Mello wrote in his decision, which was issued Dec. 12.
The South Burlington School District sought to appeal the ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court. In a ruling issued on Jan. 30 approving the appeal, Mello wrote that the district had met all the criteria for a Supreme Court appeal.
The central issue in the case — the meaning of the “right to instruct” clause in the Vermont Constitution — has never been examined by the Vermont Supreme Court, Mello wrote in his decision.
In his December ruling, Mello had ordered the South Burlington School Board to put the mascot question on the ballot. His subsequent decision to allow the appeal to go forward puts a hold on the order pending Supreme Court review.
South Burlington’s mascot case has already had an impact in Burlington, where petitioners opposed to basing F-35 fighter jets at Burlington’s airport petitioned the City Council to revisit the issue in the form of a question on the city ballot in March. The F-35 petitioners also collected the signatures of 5 percent of registered Burlington voters. The question they want the City Council to put directly to voters is whether to oppose the planes and request quieter planes.
The question of basing the F-35s in Burlington would appear to have been settled long ago — in many votes before the City Council. The jets still have support on the City Council — and reversing the decision is an unlikely prospect — but the City Council approved the petition, and the question will appear on the Burlington ballot on March 6.
City Attorney Eileen Blackwood cited Mello’s ruling when she advised the City Council to put the question on the ballot.
“My advice to you all has been that, because of the fact that Judge Mello is the judge to whom the appeal from your action would go, it’s likely that Judge Mello would tell you ‘Yes, you have to put it on the ballot’,” Blackwood at last Monday’s City Council meeting.
