Editor’s note: This commentary was submitted by 47 Newbury residents whose names are listed at the end of the piece.
To: The Vermont House & Senate Education Committees, The Secretary of the State Agency of Education, The Members of the State Board of Education
Cc: Vermont School Boards Association, Vermont’s Superintendents Association, Local Legislators & others
[C]hink. Chink. Chink. Cra-a-ck. That’s the sound of your heavy hammer against the rock-ribbed democratic traditions of our town. The passage of Act 46, and especially its interpretation and rollout, is challenging the precious heritage that binds us as a community.
Act 46 was passed with the ostensible goals of saving money and expanding educational opportunity. In our town, neither result is likely. Instead, we can foresee an expanding bureaucracy at the supervisory union level and diminishing support for our school, as the locus of meaningful decision-making moves miles away. (In Newbury, adding injury to insult, we will now be sharing in nearly $1 million in another town’s debt that our residents never voted on.)
Newbury has been partnered with Bradford in the Oxbow Union 30 High School district for nearly 50 years. While the two towns’ elementary schools have been independent, they have been working together closely through the Orange East SU to prepare students for the 7-12 “Oxbow years.”
For Newbury voters, the state’s idea of a “preferred governance structure” was rejected in a Special Town Meeting, 117 to 17. Our board’s written request to the state board provided plenty of evidence of efficient cooperation, yet it seems that the forced-merger decisions were a done deal, “alternative governance structure” proposals be damned.
We urge the state board to reconsider its mandated merger in Newbury, but beyond that, we ask you to step back and consider the hubris of top-down decision-making and its destructive effect on the fabric of communities across the state. Ultimately, top-quality schools depend on strong communities.
Robin Barone
Thomas & Mary Burnham
Elizabeth Burnham
Judith Cesari
Robert Chapla
Lenice Cicchini
Mary Collins
Kathy & Rick Damon
John & Helena Davison
William Ellithorpe
Kathy & Stephen Gale
Susan Goodell
Marvin Harrison
Emmy & Rick Hausman
Fay Homan
Paul Jewett
Beate & Kevin Kane
Ruth Kennedy
Susan Kennedy
Jane Labun
Sydney Lea
Judith Lerner
Allison Line-Andrews
Scott Magrath
Cynthia Maltbie
Marjorie Martin
Jeff Mills
Janet Mitchell
Hannah & John Narowski
Caroline & John Nininger
John Renfrew
Wayne Richardson
Richard Roderick
Jamie Rogers-Mills
Kenneth Rower
Paul Sachs
Martin & Mary Jane Smit
Susan Underwood
Brad Vietje
Don Waterman
