[T]he State Board of Education got an earful from northern Vermont school officials this week during the first of three regional meetings being held to get local feedback on the last phase of Act 46, the school district consolidation law.
Over 150 districts have already merged voluntarily into 39 new unified school districts under the controversial law. But three years into the law’s implementation, state officials are now tasked with deciding what to do with districts that haven’t opted to merge voluntarily.
The 95 districts that haven’t merged of their own accord submitted alternative plans, dubbed Section 9 proposals, to the Agency of Education for consideration earlier this year.
In June, Acting Education Secretary Heather Bouchey recommended 18 forced mergers. In all remaining cases, Bouchey recommended the districts not consolidate — due to mergers being impractical or legally impossible — or continue with processes already underway. The state board will have the final say in a plan due on Nov. 30.
It was standing room only in the Newark gymnasium on Wednesday. Residents and school officials packed the meeting, many with shirts or posters that pleaded with the board to “Save our Schools!”
The fear that mergers could eventually bring the closure of small schools – a perennial anxiety in the Act 46 debate – was again brought up.
“Some people actually think that the state board is closing their school. Which we do not have the power to do. That’s a local decision. So there’s a lot of misunderstanding around school closure and (Act) 46,” State Board Chair Krista Huling told the crowd.
School officials from across northern Vermont argued that forced mergers were undemocratic and would upset existing efforts to better share staff and resources.
“I think in communities that voted for it – and that’s the key difference – communities that voted for it, and it made sense for the people, it is a great plan,” Robert Berger, the chair of the Franklin school district, told the board on Wednesday. “We did not vote for it. We voted unanimously against it.”
Bouchey has recommended Franklin 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 argued the agency’s plan was based on faulty data, and he said separating Sheldon from its current partner districts in the Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union would disrupt systems already in place supporting that districts’ most vulnerable students – those receiving special education services, which are coordinated at the supervisory union level.
“Things are going well and working,” said Charleston school board chair Jason Brueck. “We’re moving toward increased collaboration where it makes sense. This forced model — there’s no evidence to suggest that it’s going to obviously result in cost savings or obviously result in educational outcomes.”
The fact that wealthy Stowe would be allowed to remain a stand-alone district and not merge with its neighbor, the newly unified Elmore and Morristown district, under the Agency of Education’s plan also rankled several attendees.
Christina Suarez-Pratt, a school board member from Montgomery, noted that the secretary had, in her proposal for unmerged districts, said that certain school board members discussed their neighbors with “thinly disguised socio-economic bias.”
It was ironic then, Suarez-Pratt argued, that Stowe might be allowed to remain independent, while much poorer districts — including Montgomery — were being forced to consolidate.
“Many of my community members view this discrepancy as inherent socio-economic bias on the part of the acting secretary’s recommendations,” she said.
The state board is next scheduled to meet Aug. 15 in Montpelier to get feedback on the secretary’s recommendations for central Vermont. A final regional meeting for southern Vermont districts is set for Sept. 19 in Chester.
The full schedule for the meetings can be found here.