[F]RANKLIN — To block potentially state-imposed mergers under Act 46, some school districts are considering privatizing. But in Franklin, the school board is telling residents that going the independent school route is no way to save local control.
Many, worried that district mergers will pave the way for consolidated school boards to shutter small schools, say that closing a school – and then later reopening as a private entity – could provide a work-around and block a merger. That’s because the State Board of Education, which must release a final plan under the law by Nov. 30, can’t merge two districts with different operating structures.
But the strategy creates too much uncertainty and could lead talented staff to leave the school, Franklin school board members argued at an informational meeting Tuesday. The board has scheduled a vote for Oct. 2 on closing the Franklin Central School, after a group of residents gathered enough signatures to petition a vote. The school in northwestern Vermont has about 100 students in preK through grade 6.
An independent school – even if it managed to open, retain teachers, and lease space in the current school’s facilities – wouldn’t be subject to the same democratic controls, school board members said. It wouldn’t need to follow open meeting laws, and residents could neither elect its governing board nor vote on its budget.
“I’m not sure what kind of statement we’re making by telling the State Board (of Education) that we value our local control so much that we’re willing to throw it away,” Franklin school board chair Bob Berger told the crowd gathered in the school’s gym Tuesday evening.
The school board has instead signed on to a lawsuit, Berger said, which a group of school districts will file if they’re forced to merge under the state board’s final plan. Eight districts have signed on so far, according to Margaret MacLean, who is helping to organize the effort through Vermonters for Schools and Community, a group advocating against forced mergers. More districts are expected to vote on the matter shortly.
Whether or not a vote to close can actually block a merger remains to be seen. The Agency of Education has said that unless schools actually close before the state board’s plan comes out, votes to close don’t preclude a merger. That’s because the state can’t trust that communities won’t reverse their votes as soon as the Nov. 30 deadline under the law passes, agency officials argue.
And in fact, that’s precisely what James Jewett, who helped organize the petition to close, told residents on Tuesday they could do.
“If you vote to form an independent school, that doesn’t mean that you can’t meet again and vote to dissolve, to change that decision. But you need to get the state’s attention that you’re serious,” Jewett said. He added that simply hoping that the lawsuit could block mergers amounted to the district “putting all of (its) eggs in one basket.”
Under the agency’s proposed plan under Act 46, Franklin is recommended to merge with Highgate, Swanton and the Missisquoi Valley Union High school districts. Sheldon, which is currently in the same supervisory union as Franklin, is being recommended to merge with the Franklin Northeast PK-8 Unified Union district.
Berger also said that Franklin’s relationships with its neighboring districts have been good, and that it isn’t a foregone conclusion a consolidated board would close the Franklin Central School. Officials in neighboring districts haven’t indicated a closure is on the horizon.
“There’s no reason to think that what they’re saying and what they’re thinking is different. They’ve been our partners for half a century,” he said. “Could we lose our school? Could they vote sometime in the future to do so? It could happen. We could lose our school. If we vote to go independent – we’ll definitely lose our school.”
