[G]ov. Phil Scott has been talking about closing schools and reducing the number of adults in classrooms for six months, but the conversation became a reality for the Chittenden East Supervisory Union last week.
The superintendent has recommended that the school board close the Underhill I.D. grade school, and increase student enrollment at Underhill Central and Jericho Elementary.
Superintendent John Alberghini presented a report on the proposal to a large crowd of parents and teachers at the Mount Mansfield Modified Union School District last week. The school board requested the study in fall 2017 and will vote on whether to close the school in the fall. No changes would be made for 18 months, officials say.
There will be a community forum in June on the proposed closure of Underhill I.D. grade school.
Alberghini’s research shows that the school district doesn’t need three elementary schools at the “north end,” according to the report. Underhill I.D. is located in Jericho, about 3 miles from Jericho Elementary and Underhill Central schools.
Alberghini said he asked, “Are there some opportunities we may be missing and is there too much capacity in our schools? The answer is yes.”
Together, the schools have shed more than 300 students since the 1990s. In 1995, Underhill I.D. had 171 students in all five grades — the highest headcount in the last 28 years. There are now 88 students at the school this year. Jericho hit a high water mark that same year with 357 students, but now has 244 students. Underhill Central is down to 97 students from a high of 237 in 1993.
Under the new plan, Jericho would increase the number of students to 288 and Underhill Central would push up to 141.
The average elementary school size in the United States is 470 students, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.
Closing the school would save $456,000 a year from staff reductions. Some of the staff reductions are small but they add up, according to Alberghini. A principal, secretary, custodian, nurse and some paraprofessionals are listed in the report as possible cuts. “It would likely increase our student to staff ratios a little bit, but not much,” he said.
Alberghini worked with school administrators to come up with savings estimates and they are on the conservative side. “I took a conservative approach on savings so that we don’t promise something we weren’t going to be able to deliver,” he said.
Clara Clopton said she moved to Vermont from Texas because her family wanted their children to attend a small school with direct instruction and a community that puts education first.
Angelike Contis, who has a son in first grade at the school, said the need to lower taxes seems to be driving the effort and she worries about the symbolism. “Are we really putting kids first when we close their school to convert it into administrative office space?” she asked. “The other day my son said he could name every kid and adult at UID. Is the time up for that in Vermont?”
“I am wondering why we are rushing to be one of the first of the newly merged Vermont school board districts to close a school,” Contis said.
Andrew Pond, chair of the Mount Mansfield Modified Union School District, said the study is a starting point for a conversation with the community.
“We are talking about it today for the first time,” Pond said. “We don’t have to make any changes, this is just a first look to decide if changes make sense.”
School board members’ questions were a mix of concerns and possible positive outcomes. Some asked whether increasing class sizes would harm learning or achievement; they were told it would not.
Educators and families would have more options and it would be easier to balance class sizes, helping with staffing, if the three schools were collapsed into two, according to the report.
“Sometimes students need an option of two different teachers or more classmates to help them grow,” Alberghini said.
There would also be more consistency delivering special education services because teachers wouldn’t have to work in multiple schools.
A couple board members said by combining schools teachers will have other grade level colleagues to work with, making teaching more consistent across the grade. Right now, there is often just one class per grade and teachers don’t have that option. Alberghini said that staff would benefit from more collaboration.
The superintendent said the board should take a lesson from some Midwest towns that closed schools and found it had a negative impact on the community. “Trying to preserve a community school whenever you can is really important, it adds to the richness of the community as well as property values,” he said.
Last November, Gov. Phil Scott sent a memo to school leaders that said the school buildings and staff are capable of serving 120,000 students but today Vermont has fewer than 80,000. In January, Scott proposed lawmakers set up a commission to look into closing underutilized schools. In the last weeks of the legislative session, his administration tried to get legislation that would get schools to cut staffing levels and increase the staff to student ratio to save money.
Correction: Comments from Clara Clopton and Angelike Contis were misattributed.
