Today and tomorrow, more school leaders from Vermont’s 277 distinct school districts will descend on Montpelier, where they will meet individually with members of the Vermont School Boards Association, Vermont Superintendents Association, and officials from the Agency of Education (AOE) to discuss how they will begin implementing the new state law, Act 46, which is aimed at restructuring school districts into larger, more cost-effective systems that better serve students.
In June, the first such set of meetings with school board members and superintendents were held in Montpelier — notably without a quorum of board members so the meetings would not be considered public, and would not have to be warned as such.
Jill Remick, a spokeswoman for the Agency of Education, on Wednesday confirmed that a second round of meetings — intended to help more school districts — are set for Thursday and Friday this week.
Districts that move quickly, with votes approved locally by July 1, 2016, to join larger unified school systems, will qualify for the most generous tax breaks under the new law.
Those new districts will need to be in place by July 1, 2017, under the law.
Districts that take longer to form unified districts prescribed in the law will qualify for tax breaks, but for one less year, with less generous incentives.
The law requires districts to merge into new school systems of at least 900 pupils by 2018. At that point, the State Board of Education has the authority to restructure districts that don’t merge or that don’t meet educational quality review standards.
Although education spending and property tax rates to support school budgets have continued to climb, Vermont’s public school system has shed more than 24,000 pupils since 1997. Staff and teacher ratios meanwhile have remained constant.
Taxpayer outcry over school budgets led to three dozen budget defeats on Town Meeting Day 2014, and the Vermont General Assembly this session worked to push out a law that would seek to respond to both taxpayer concerns, as well as concerns over diminishing educational equity across Vermont’s educational landscape.
Windsor Southeast SU
David Baker, superintendent of the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, said his districts — Windsor, West Windsor, Weathersfield and Hartland — are all pursuing an accelerated merger.
Baker shared what was learned by meeting with school officials in Montpelier in June:
- The supervisory union can qualify for the accelerated merger if the entire supervisory union merges into a unified district, or if the whole supervisory union merges with another supervisory union;
- In a merger, all students have to have the same treatment “with respect to choice,” or if high school choice is offered it would have to be offered to all four towns within a merged WSSU district; and
- If the supervisory union merges, it could be exempted from the variable spending cap, which is part of the new law, and the towns would be eligible for all early tax and financial incentives under the law.
Baker wrote, “For example, we could make it part of our merger agreement that NO school would close without a future Australian ballot of the voters in that town.”
After meeting with officials in Montpelier in the first round of meetings held in June, Baker said, “The board chairs were convinced that it was in our best interest to pursue an early merger option.”
“The boards are well aware that it will take a successful Australian ballot vote in all four towns in order for this to happen. If one town votes this down, then no town can move ahead,” Baker said.
Votes must take place for the accelerated mergers by June 20, 2016, Baker wrote, so a proposal must be agreed upon and put out to voters in the four towns in the spring.
To that end, forums have been scheduled this summer in the communities served by the supervisory union.
Baker said the supervisory union plans to submit a plan to the state in the early fall for a merger.
“The timeline on an early merger is tight. Our four towns are looking at three proposals,” he said.
Those three proposals would include:
- A PreK-12 district with Windsor as the dedicated high school — no choice;
- A PreK-12 district with 7-12 choice;
- A PreK-12 district with 9-12 choice.
“The choice options would be in all four towns including Windsor,” said Baker. “They have never had choice,” he said of the Windsor district.
To date, Baker said, “We have had four of eight public forums. We survey folks as they leave. So far 9-12 choice had the most support.”
Once all the feedback is collected, a proposal will be chosen and submitted for early merger consideration at the AOE, said Baker.
“Unlike some of my colleague superintendents, I think Act 46 can be an opportunity to save our small schools and sustain our programs by increasing the scalability; essentially a larger tax base over which you can spread costs,” Baker said.
The forums in WSSU began July 20 and will run through Aug. 26.
Remaining forums will be held Aug. 10 at the Weathersfield School at 6:30 p.m.; Aug. 11 and Aug. 17 at the Hartland School at 6:30 p.m.; and Aug. 26 at the West Windsor Town Hall, also at 6:30 p.m.
Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union
Another supervisory union taking a hard look at Act 46 is the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union (BRSU).
On Monday evening, the BRSU board met and discussed Act 46, said Superintendent Dan French on Wednesday.
Whether an accelerated merger proposal is likely to come from BRSU, French said, “It is too early to tell. I am hopeful we will have identified a couple of paths forward under Act 46 within the next few months. Once these have been identified, we will engage in further study and begin a community engagement process.”
The supervisory union has 11 districts and many forms of governance structures, which makes a merger more complex.
French was invited to present about his district at the State Board of Education’s retreat last month to help the board understand one supervisory union’s challenging governance landscape under Act 46.
Board members, French said, “had a wide-ranging discussion about both the content of Act 46 and its implications for BRSU districts.”
French said a discussion of Act 46 will be on each member district’s school board meeting agenda in August.
When the Dorset, Manchester, and the Mountain Towns RED boards meet in August, the supervisory union will be asking them if there is interest in holding a special joint board meeting of these three school boards to discuss Act 46, French said.
“These are our three K-8 districts which together comprise over half of the supervisory union’s enrollment,” said French. “We felt it was important to first see if there is consensus among these districts on how to proceed under Act 46. Their disposition[s] toward Act 46 will have an impact on the other member districts.”
At Monday night’s session, held in Manchester, French said a summary of Act 46 and its implications was given by the BRSU Governance Committee, which has met twice this summer specifically to unpack the legislation.
The summary noted, “Although it is unlikely a single supervisory district could be formed among all BRSU districts, Manchester and Dorset, Manchester and the Mountain Towns RED (Regional Education District), or Manchester, Dorset, and the Mountain Towns RED have a sufficient number of students in each of these three configurations to form a supervisory district on their own and might want to explore this option to take advantage of Act 46 incentives for supervisory districts.”
The summary report prepared for the BRSU meeting this week stated, “Each BRSU district will have a different disposition towards Act 46. For some districts, the loss of Small Schools Grant revenue will be an important consideration. In others, the designation of high schools in New York will be a paramount concern. School choice is an important consideration for all of our districts,” the summary document states.
Although the report predicted changes could be ahead for Act 46 due to “political pushback,” it also acknowledged that the law “might provide an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of BRSU districts in terms of improved learning opportunities for students, operational efficiency, and achieving a more sustainable governance structure.”
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