Secretary of the Agency of Education Rebecca Holcombe. Photo by Tom Brown/VTDigger
School boards are getting assistance with the rollout of H.361, the major education reform bill recently passed by the Legislature.
H.361 calls for the formation of larger school systems in Vermont. The objective of the legislation is to find economies of scale and improve opportunities for students.
Rebecca Holcombe, secretary of the Agency of Education, delivered a recent presentation to the Vermont Superintendents Association and the Vermont School Boards Association as the implementation of H.361 began.
Measures in the bill are voluntary at first, and include tax incentives and grants to spur merger activity toward school systems of at least 900 pupils. The law also phases out supports, including small school grants and hold harmless provisions for districts that do not join larger systems.
Gov. Peter Shumlin will sign the bill into law Tuesday at the Smilie School in Bolton, which is part of the Mount Mansfield Modified Union District in the Chittenden East Supervisory Union.
Last year, several districts in Chittenden East merged to form the first Modified Union District in Vermont. The communities in Chittenden East are already reaping savings and schools are expanding programs for students, officials say.
Shumlin will be joined at the bill-signing by the heads of education organizations and legislators.
Vermont’s public schools enrollment has declined for nearly two decades. Since 1997, public schools in Vermont are down more than 24,000 pupils, but staffing levels have remained relatively constant, and education spending and taxes have continued to climb.
Holcombe walked through H.361 in a presentation to about 100 superintendents and school board members. She stressed that the legislation seeks to create educational equity, quality and efficiency across Vermont, in a time of increasing adversity faced by children and families, and a scarcity of resources.
District mergers do not necessarily mean school mergers, Holcombe said.
“Some school closings are inevitable even if the Legislature and the Agency of Education do nothing,” she said. “Merging now in a thoughtful manner may be preferable to merging quickly under pressure because the school or district is no longer functional.”
Holcombe explained that as part of implementing H.361, the agency will conduct education quality reviews of all school districts in Vermont over a three-year period.
The bill will ultimately allow the State Board of Education to reassign school districts based on recommendations from the secretary of the Agency of Education.
Steve Dale of the VSBA said school boards don’t like the cost-containment provision that was added to the bill the day before it was approved by the Legislature. The law features a variable percentage cap on spending based on a school district’s current equalized per pupil cost.
The goal is to keep statewide education increases at 2 percent during fiscal years 2017 and 2018 until the larger school systems are created.
“We fully understand the sense of urgency to address education spending and property taxes,” Dale said. “Our concern is that the mechanism they have chosen will translate into a tax increase for a number of moderately spending districts, which already have reasonable student/teacher ratios.”
Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, said his group was still parsing the details in the bill.
“There is a growing awareness of, and belief in, the need for Vermont to modify its education delivery system to provide more equitable access to resources, more efficiency and affordability and more ability to respond to expanding educational and societal needs,” Francis said.
Rep. Emily Long, D-Newfane, president of the VSBA and a longtime school board member in Newfane and the Windham Central Supervisory Union, is also a freshman legislator who served on the House Education Committee.
Long said the bill gives districts options for developing larger districts.
“I think people realize, this is in place … what can we do to make this work for us?” she said. The driving question, she said, is “What do our kids need?”
“If people can stay focused on students and what their needs are, I think we’re going to come out of this with opportunities that look a lot better for kids,” Long said.
The post Education Agency works to roll out governance reform bill appeared first on VTDigger.