[T]he Vermont State Board of Education has now weighed in on nearly all districts that asked for a reprieve under Act 46, issuing a second round of provisional decisions on Monday regarding districts facing the possibility of forced mergers.
The 11-member body is tasked with deciding what to do with the 90-some districts that have so far refused to merge under Vermont’s school board consolidation law.
The Secretary of Education released a recommended plan earlier this summer. The board, which makes the final call on consolidations, issued a first batch of decisions on about two-thirds of proposals earlier this month.
State board member John Carroll said near the conclusion of the daylong meeting held at Mill River Union High in North Clarendon that he had been concerned at the outset of the process that the body might act “in slavish obedience to the recommendations of the Secretary.”
“I think that today’s work shows that the board is quite really capable of thinking for itself,” he said.
In most instances, the board has taken their cues from the Secretary’s plan. But they have departed from it in notable instances, and in several cases have voted to merge districts the Secretary had recommended be allowed to remain as is.
In Stowe’s case, for example, the Secretary had recommended the district be allowed to remain independent instead of merging with the newly created nearby Elmore-Morristown district. In her recommended plan, then-interim Secretary Heather Bouchey had written that the “communities’ concern for the well-being of all their children will impel them eventually to continue to seek opportunities to work collaboratively.”
“That’s kind of weak tea to me,” Carroll said.
Others agreed, and John O’Keefe, another board member, pointed out that others facing forced mergers had complained Stowe appeared to be getting a pass where others were not.
“This is one of the ones that consistently was pointed out,” he said.
The board next meets on Nov. 14 in Williamstown. Neither the board nor the Secretary have weighed in so far on Barre City and Barre Town, or on the seven member districts of Lake Region Union High. That’s because voters in those communities will go to the polls Nov. 6 to vote on merger proposals. State officials said they didn’t want to interfere with that process.
The board also still needs to finalize articles of agreement, which will act as governing documents for districts formed by forced mergers.
A coalition of communities facing forced mergers, meanwhile, are readying for a lawsuit. Nearly two dozen school boards have taken a vote to join as plaintiffs if merged against their will in the State Board’s plan.
The state board only has the authority merge school districts under Act 46 until November 30. But it can redraw supervisory union boundaries at will, and board members began a preliminary conversation Monday about what a newly-drawn SU map might look like.
Education Secretary Dan French indicated he supported the initiative – but he urged board members to put the conversation aside for the time being, and to come back to it after the Act 46 process had concluded.
“The broader pattern and function of SUs I think should be revisited in a larger policy conversation,” French said.
Here’s a rundown of the decisions made Monday:
• The board disagreed with the Secretary’s plan to merge Danville and Cabot, and took no action on Twinfield. But they did re-assign Twinfield and Cabot to the Caledonia Central Supervisory Union.
• The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to leave Craftsbury as-is.
The board disagreed with the Secretary and voted to merge Stowe with the Elmore-Morristown district.
• The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to merge the Enosburgh and Richford districts.
The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to leave the Fairfax, Fletcher, and Georgia school districts as-is.
• The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to leave Hartland and Weathersfield as-is.
• The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to merge Montgomery and Sheldon with the Franklin Northeast Pre-K-8 school district. That means re-assigning Sheldon into the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union.
• The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to allow Stamford to continue exploring an inter-state district with Massachusetts.
• The board agreed with the Secretary’s plan to allow the Waits River Valley unified school district to stay as-is.
• The board disagreed with the Secretary’s plan to leave the member districts of Bellows Falls Union High as-is, and instead voted to merge together Athens, Grafton, and Westminster. Because Rockingham has a different operating structure, it will remain a stand-alone.
• The board disagreed with the Secretary’s plan to leave the member districts of Hazen Union High as-is, and instead voted to merge together Stannard, Hardwick, Woodbury, and Greensboro.
