That Act 46 loophole? There might be a loophole.
Last September, communities across Vermont unhappy in merged school districts took notice when Halifax and Readsboro, two tiny southern Vermont communities, won approval from the State Board of Education to go their separate ways.
For half a decade, mergers have been perhaps the most hotly-contested K-12 reforms to come out of the Statehouse, and the Halifax-Readsboro divorce appeared to reveal a little-known legal off-ramp to consolidation mandated under Act 46. If all communities involved agreed to let a town out of a merged district, an Agency of Education attorney told board members at the time, the state board would have little discretion to halt the breakup.
But there may be a catch, an agency lawyer recently told local school district officials inquiring about the process. The law states that “a town or city corresponding to a preexisting school district that voted to form a unified union school district may vote to withdraw from the district.”
That wording, however, may preclude communities that never “voted to form” a consolidated entity in the first place — and that were instead forced to merge by the State Board of Education — from taking advantage of the out afforded by law.
“The Agency believes that until the Legislature clarifies its intent, the plain reading of (the law) prohibits the members of a State Board-created (unified union school district) from pursuing withdrawal / dissolution,” agency attorney Donna Russo-Savage wrote in an email.
The “voted to form” language shouldn’t be a problem for Ripton, a small municipality that won approval on Town Meeting Day from all of its neighbors to withdraw from the unified Addison Central School District. Addison Central’s communities were early adopters of Act 46 and voluntarily consolidated in 2016.
It’s unclear if it applies to Westminster, Athens and Grafton — three communities that have also recently voted to part ways. Those communities were mandated to merge by the State Board under Act 46, but they currently make up a “union” school district, not a “unified union” school district. That seemingly picayune difference could matter.
Unified union school districts operate both elementary and secondary schools. Union school districts operate one or the other. The section of law that governs withdrawal and dissolution in union elementary and union high school districts, Russo-Savage noted, doesn’t include the “voted to form” language.
But there are “unified union” districts forced to merge by the state that are now eyeing breakups and could run into this roadblock. Notably, it could be a problem in Stowe — home to Republican Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, who has sponsored legislation that would strike the “voted to form” language from statute.
Scheuermann argues that the bill is a question of fairness and is “designed to clarify that these involuntarily merged districts are treated the same as all of the other districts that merged.”
The House Education Committee has not yet taken up her bill, which is likely dead for the session. But Scheuermann says that is unlikely to deter Stowe, where community members are forging ahead with a petition to withdraw from the district the town was forced into with Elmore and Morrisville in 2018.
“We don’t believe it is a roadblock. We believe that we are allowed to do this,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure it was clarified.”
