Gov. Peter Shumlin high-fives a student at the Smilie School in Bolton on Tuesday, as he signs the education reform bill into law. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
BOLTON — Gov. Peter Shumlin signed legislation on Tuesday that will change the structure of education governance in Vermont. The governor affixed his signature to H.361 surrounded by elementary school children and more than a dozen lawmakers and education leaders.
Looking to the students on the stage behind him at the Smilie Memorial School, Shumlin said, “You are why we are here … You are why we are working so hard.”
The law, Shumlin said, “is going to make a difference.”
The bill, H.361, is the product of months of work by the House and Senate education committees to forge a path for the state’s 277 school districts to merge into larger PreK-12 school systems.
The Legislature acted in response to declining enrollments and rising education costs. As population has migrated away from rural school districts, programs have been curtailed for students and property taxes have continued to go up.
“This bill is a game-changer for Vermont,” Shumlin said. “We could have done nothing and watched as [our] world-class education system was eroded by continued declining student enrollment, oversized, outdated infrastructure, and skyrocketing property taxes.
“Instead, we came together as Vermonters to find an innovative solution,” Shumlin said. “This bill will allow local communities to right-size their infrastructure, enabling them to focus on what is most important — providing a high-quality, 21st century education for their students at a price Vermonters can all afford.”
Since 1997, Vermont’s public schools have lost more than 24,000 students, and population projections show that decline is expected to continue through at least 2030.
Shumlin ticked off some of Vermont’s statistics: the lowest student-to-staff ratio in the country at 4.7 to 1; the highest per pupil spending in the nation; the lowest class size in the country.
The problem, Shumlin said, again referencing the schoolchildren surrounding him, is “We can’t guarantee every one of you the best educational quality and we can’t guarantee your parents that their property taxes won’t continue to rise faster than they can pay their bills.”
The law phases out subsidies Shumlin called “disincentives” for districts to make changes, including small schools grants and the hold-harmless formula put in place to cushion the tax rate in districts seeing rapid enrollment declines; it instead includes tax incentives and grants to spur merger activity.
A two-year, cost-constraint formula is built into the bill, and districts that spend the most per pupil will be allowed the least growth, while spending beyond what the formula allows will result in an added penalty.
Shumlin said the bill will take an already strong educational system and “make it work for every single student.”
He said the state has high rates of high school graduation, for example, but not enough of Vermont’s graduates are going onto post-secondary programs.
Most of the skills needed in today’s job market require further training, and students who do not pursue education beyond high school are destined for low-wage jobs, the governor said.
Julia Dunn, a student member of the Mount Mansfield Modified Union School District Board, speaks at the bill signing for H.361 at the Smilie School on Tuesday. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Chittenden East/Smilie School trailblazers
The governor said the bill calls for important work to be done in the state’s public schools — work that communities like Bolton and surrounding towns have already tackled.
“Bolton and Smilie really paved their own path,” Shumlin said.
At one point the Bolton community contemplated closing its school due to rising taxes and declining enrollments.
But instead, on Election Day, the communities served by the Bolton, Jericho, Richmond, Underhill ID and Underhill town schools voted to form the Mount Mansfield Modified Union School District (MMMUSD).
Only one of the towns in the Chittenden East Supervisory Union, Huntington, did not approve the voluntary school district merger and continues as a PreK-4 school district, and a member of the Chittenden East Supervisory Union. Huntington is a part of the new MMMUSD for grades 5-12.
The new district governs the current town school districts and consolidates the number of elected boards from seven to two.
There is also an SU board on which all the towns have representation.
No schools have closed, and the MMMUSD is projected to realize some $300,000 in savings in its first year operating, board chairman Jon Milazzo said.
Shumlin introduced the lawmakers and education officials standing to his sides, thanking the House and Senate education committee chairs and members, the secretary of the Agency of Education, and others in attendance.
He credited the boards and administration of Chittenden East Supervisory Union with working together across town lines in response to challenges.
“We’re here because you are a shining example of what we’ve got to do across the state of Vermont,” said Shumlin.
A banner made for the visit by Gov. Peter Shumlin and lawmakers and education officials Tuesday at the Smilie School, where the education reform bill was signed into law. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Andrew Pond, chair of the soon-to-be-dissolved Bolton School Board, and vice chairman of the new MMMUSD, said the financial burden of maintaining a small school led Bolton to the discussions about merging with neighboring communities.
The more the board looked into it, Pond said after the bill-signing, the more members realized the benefits there could be for students and teachers in a larger district.
Under H.361, school districts will have until 2019 to voluntarily find ways to merge into larger education systems of at least 900 students.
After that date, districts that have not moved into larger systems and which do not meet the state’s education quality review standards, can be restructured by the Vermont State Board of Education.
H.361, passed out of both the House and Senate the day before the legislative session ended, is the first major education governance reform bill in Vermont since 1893, said Stephan Morse, chair of the Vermont State Board of Education.
“This bill will provide equal opportunities statewide,” Morse said. “We don’t have it now, and we’re going to get it with this bill.”
History of the MMMUSD
John Alberghini, superintendent of schools for Chittenden East Supervisory Union, explained the genesis of what he calls “The Triple M,” leading to the creation of the Mount Mansfield Modified Union School District.
The communities have a long history of pooling students and resources already, said Alberghini, and have shared middle and high schools for some 50 years.
It took several years and two votes for the MMMUSD to be approved by the five districts at the November election, Alberghini said.
In the first vote, two towns — Richmond and Huntington — voted against the merger and the legislation at the time, which offered study money and grants to encourage Regional Education Districts (REDs). All towns were required to vote in the affirmative.
That mandate was later changed, so that on the second vote in November, the fact that a majority of towns approved the voluntary merger allowed it to move forward.
“I think the community made a really good case that we’re better off together than we are separated,” Alberghini said. “We’re trying to do what’s best for the students in this community, so that’s been the impetus.”
The new MMMUSD was officially organized in December of 2014.
The other district boards will dissolve at the end of June, making the joining of the districts complete.
“We are excited about our new school system, and we appreciate the hard work that the Legislature did over this past session,” said Alberghini. “To me, it’s a model of what can happen when people problem-solve, cooperate and compromise.”
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