By KATY SAVAGE
[email protected]
ROCKINGHAM, Vt. — The Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Joint Act 46 Committee is scheduled to present a mandated proposal to the Agency of Education on Friday — essentially asking that it be allowed to remain the same.
But the request comes just as agency Secretary Rebecca Holcombe, who would rule on the issue, is announcing her resignation.
Holcombe’s meeting with supervisory union will be one of her last before she leaves Sunday.
Her announcement has left state employees and local school officials wondering what will happen regarding Act 46 — the law requiring schools to determine alternative- governance plans, such as mergers.
Any school board that hadn’t complied with Act 46 was required to send an alternative-structure proposal to the state in December.
Holcombe has been meeting and questioning each of those boards this spring, along with the agency’s finance manager and secretary’s assistant.
She was scheduled to decide on the proposals June 1 to hand over to the state Board of Education. Her unnamed successor will make that decision.
Holcombe didn’t give a reason for her abrupt departure.
Supervisory union Superintendent Chris Kibbe hoped it wouldn’t delay the union’s proposal.
The supervisory union — which comprises seven boards with voters in Athens, Grafton, Westminster and Rockingham — is asking to remain as is in its alternative-structure plan.
The Joint Act 46 Committee will need to demonstrate that it already meets or exceeds the goals of Act 46.
One goal is to have at least 900 students in each school district. Another is to create equal education opportunities for each student.
Athens/Grafton School Board Chair Ed Bank was confident the schools meet those requirements.
“Even without having a singular board, we have accomplished the goals (of Act 46),” Bank said.
The supervisory union’s 163-page proposal was submitted to the state this winter after voters in Athens, Grafton and Westminster rejected the original Act 46 plan to replace seven school boards with one at last year’s Town Meeting.
WNESU’s proposal is one of 40 that have been submitted to the state. AOE officials have met with 29 school boards so far regarding the proposals. The other meetings are scheduled over the coming weeks.
AOE officials said the agency will continue those meetings in the secretary’s absence.
Holcombe was with the agency four years before she resigned. She issued a letter regarding her resignation on Tuesday, addressed to educators.
“As you well know, the state faces tough fiscal and demographic challenges that require compromise and sacrifice as we pull together to care for our communities,” Holcombe said.
Gov. Phil Scott thanked Holcombe for her work in a March 27 press release. He addressed her Act 46 efforts.
“In the context of this law alone, Rebecca has likely met with every superintendent and school board member in the state, and this work remains very important as we move forward,” Scott said.
Scott said he’d name an interim secretary in the coming days.
The State Board of Education will have public meetings over the summer and fall and take testimony from school board members and citizens before making a decision regarding the alternative structure proposals.
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