[M]erger activity is on a brief hiatus for a group of school districts appealing forced consolidations ordered by the Agency of Education and the State Board of Education.
The group includes 31 school districts and towns that filed a suit on Dec. 20 challenging the State Board of Education’s final reorganization of districts on the grounds that the board’s action was unconstitutional did not follow education laws.
Lawyers on both sides agreed Monday to postpone installing transitional school boards until at least the third week of February. Under Act 46, transitional boards are charged with adopting a proposed budget for the new unified district and generally preparing to implement the merger.
Secretary of Education Dan French had initially ordered transitional boards have their first meetings by Jan. 29. This new agreement, which also gives the state more time to respond to the school districts’ appeal, pushes that deadline back a few weeks.
David Kelley, one of the attorneys representing the 31 school districts jointly appealing the State Board of Education’s merger decisions under the law, said the agreement gives both sides time to lay out their arguments “before the landscape becomes so tangled and commingled that it becomes impossible to put the pieces back together again.”
School districts in the case have also asked the judge for a preliminary injunction to block mergers from going into effect while the court weighs the merits of their case. The recent agreement between both sides doesn’t rescind that request, but instead gives attorneys more time to flesh out their arguments before a judge. A ruling on the preliminary injunction, which is hoped for in February, could put mergers on hold for months – if not years – while the suit winds its way through the courts.
People on both sides of the issue have long complained that the timeline outlined in the law allows for little wiggle room. New districts created by the state are expected to open shop this summer, which means that – unless a judge intervenes – unified budgets should be before voters on this Town Meeting Day.
Nicole Mace, director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said this latest agreement doesn’t mean existing school boards shouldn’t continue to work on preparing for March.
“This is an extraordinarily compressed time frame for districts as it is,” she said.
As for whether districts should budget for unification – or independence – Mace said board members should probably play it safe.
“It’s risky in any endeavor to not plan on any outcome,” she said.
