There are a few remaining battles against forced school mergers across the state, even as the July 1 deadline quickly approaches just weeks away. One such community fighting back is the Windham district.
Five communities — Brookline, Jamaica, Newfane, Townshend and Windham — will vote by Australian ballot on June 11 whether Windham Elementary School District should fully join the West River district.
More than once, a speaker noted that participation in the meeting “is in no way intended as an affirmation of the legality of the State Board of Education’s Report and Order on statewide school merger decisions” issued on Nov. 30, 2018.
A school board member frustrated with Act 46 stood at the Berlin Town Meeting on Tuesday to deplore the unwelcome outcomes and suggest possible fixes concerning the controversial school merger law.
After narrowly voting down the “Scheuermann Amendment” that would have given all schools facing mergers a one-year extension to comply with Act 46, House lawmakers on Thursday voted to allow some schools to get the extension.
The Vermont House of Representatives on Wednesday voted down a proposed amendment that would have allowed a one-year extension for forced school district mergers under Act 46.
Given the uncertainty around a merger of local school districts, articles for annual town meetings are being warned with an eye toward what could play out in the courts.
A group of lawmakers led by Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, presented two bills this afternoon that would act as a moratorium on enforcement of Act 46 regarding forced school mergers.
On a recent episode of Vote for Vermont, host Pat McDonald had two education experts talk about Act 46 and the impact that district consolidation and potential school closures are going to have on small communities.
Now that the dust has settled on school merger proposals from the State Board of Education, some of the most frustrated districts are joining a legal battle to defeat Act 46.
Four communities in the lower Northeast Kingdom are trying to adjust to a big reversal by Vermont’s education bureaucracy about recommended mergers under Act 46, the 2015 school governance law.
It didn’t matter if the local school board members had four minutes or four hours — the State Board of Education had made up its mind before the meeting.