Newbury, Vt.
On a 117-17 vote, Newbury voters on Thursday evening rejected a state proposal to collapse the Newbury Elementary School District into a larger district that would include Blue Mountain Union, Oxbow Union High School District and Bradford Elementary School.
Following the advisory vote, which was held during a floor meeting at the Newbury Elementary School, voters also supported, on a voice vote, a contingency plan that would transfer the Commons, a public gathering spot, away from the school district in the event of a merger, according to Town Clerk Nikki Tomlinson. A third measure, which also passed on a voice vote, supports a School Board plan to transfer the school building to the town, should a merged district ever vote to close the school.
Newbury School Board Chairman Paul Jewett has said that the outcome of these votes would help school officials decide whether to join at least eight other districts in a legal action that would oppose a series of forced mergers that the state Agency of Education has proposed under Act 46, the 2015 education reform law that seeks to lower costs and increase educational opportunities by merging districts into larger, more cost-effective structures.
Blue Mountain School also came closer to joining the legal action this month, when its School Boardvoted on Sept. 19 to join the legal action — but only if the State Board of Education follows the advice of the state agency and forces Blue Mountain to merge.
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“We must complete our work by Nov. 30,” State Board of Education Chairwoman Krista Huling said on Friday.
Though more than 100 districts have been eliminated through voluntary mergers, dozens of others have argued that the best way for them to meet the law’s goals of equity and affordability is by remaining in their existing governance structures.
Concerns about school closings and loss of local control have fueled much of the opposition to consolidation.
Over the last few months, the State Board of Education held three listening sessions across the state, and on Tuesday, it will hold a daylong workshop at the White River Valley Middle School in Bethel.
State Board administrator Suzanne Sprague said the plan to hold the special meeting, which will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., has been in place for months.
The board is expected to craft and vote on the guiding principles it will use in deciding which districts, if any, should remain unmerged. The agenda frames the discussion in three sections — “obligations and duties” under Act 46, “development of guiding principles,” and “development of logic model.”
A vote to adopt guiding principles is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
The Tuesday meeting will begin with a presentation by the White River Valley School District, which was formed in July by a merger of school districts in Bethel and Royalton.
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.