By JEFF EPSTEIN
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BARRE, Vt. — The state board of education met Thursday to discuss the fate of school districts under Act 46, and reconfirmed it will leave Weathersfield, Hartland, and the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) alone, and compel the districts of Westminster, Athens and Grafton to merge.
Although in previous meetings the state board had decided to leave WSESU as it is (including the new merger of Windsor and West Windsor into the Mount Ascutney School District, effective July 1, 2019) some language in the board minutes had caused concern and confusion in the districts. Moreover, Weathersfield and Hartland were on the agenda for discussion at this meeting.
As it turned out, although the board did vote at the previous meeting on Oct. 28 to reject the secretary of education’s language that said merging the two districts was “possible” and “practicable,” the minutes state that the vote was taken without a seconded motion on the table, making it invalid.
State board chair Krista Huling, in discussing this Thursday, said the motion and second might have been made but “not picked up” because “there were fans going” in the meeting room. In any case, after consulting with legal counsel, the board decided it was prudent to reconsider the item. With a proper motion by board member John O’Keefe and a second by member Peter Peltz, it passed again and the matter was concluded.
However, the public comments section came before this discussion on the agenda. Not realizing the issue was merely a procedural error, the WSESU team showed up with two resolutions urging the board to not merge Weathersfield and Hartland or do anything else to break the WSESU. West Windsor School Board chair Elizabeth Burrows presented her resolution to the board during public comments, and Weathersfield School Board chair Sean Whalen later presented his district’s own similar resolution, which was passed at its meeting Wednesday. WSESU Superintendent David Baker was also present but did not testify.
Later in the meeting, the board heard from the districts of Westminster, Athens and Grafton. A representative from Rockingham (not included in the merger) was also present.
“We ask you to reconsider,” said Westminster board chair David Major. He told the state board the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union works well for the four districts, and “our four towns went through the whole process,” with the result that Athens, Grafton and Westminster voted down a proposed merger in 2017.
A forced merger, he said, “would be a difficult thing” with long school bus drives for some students, perhaps up to an hour.
Major also told the state board that Westminster pays higher property taxes than the other towns, in part because of debt incurred from a gymnasium built about 15 years ago. A merger could force tax rates in the other towns to rise, he said.
Windham Northeast Superintendent Chris Pratt, who had a time conflict and arrived late, attempted to present a statement to the board. At that point, however, the time allotted was drawing to a close, and Huling asked him to just answer a question presented by O’Keefe regarding how the districts work together now. The supervisory union has a working plan, Pratt said before time ran out.
With testimony concluded, the board appeared to move toward a reconsideration of its forced merger vote. However, the board then moved on to a different district altogether. As that discussion got underway, no action was taken on Westminster matter. Major and the others were uncertain if the matter was closed.
Late in the meeting, Huling opened the floor for any concerns among state board members they wanted to revisit. While there was much discussion about the town of Cabot, Westminster and the others did not come up again. In discussion, some members had disagreements regarding the language of Act 46 and about Robert’s Rules of Order, which govern public meetings.
No vote or other action regarding the merger of the Windham County school districts was taken, and the board moved into discussion of its draft final plan.
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