Forced Vermont school district mergers proceeding

By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WESTMINSTER, Vt. — Despite the professed desire of the school boards in Westminster and other towns suing the state, nothing appears to be stopping forced district mergers under Act 46.

Westminster is one of 54 individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit Athens School District et al. v. State Board of Education et al. They represent towns where the state board is compelling mergers of individual school boards into consolidated union boards, despite local votes against the mergers.

The lawsuit is one of three objecting to the state’s consolidation plan.

The complaint states that “these forced mergers are against the will of the local school boards and local communities that voted in opposition to merger and who believe that their children are better served by remaining independent districts … the Board’s action is unconstitutional.”

After the release of the final state plan for school district consolidation, which included merging the elementary school districts in Westminster, Athens and Grafton, some school board members expressed hope that the Vermont Superior Court could grant an immediate injunction against the implementation of the plan, pending adjudication of the mergers that had been voted down by residents of the affected towns.

But it turns out that for both this lawsuit and the two others that have been filed from other towns, no court action has happened yet.

The first thing that happens in a lawsuit is that the defending party files a response to the plaintiff’s complaint, called an answer. The state attorney general’s office has not filed an answer yet, and has requested more time to file, according to David Kelley, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

Another snag, Kelley said, is that one of the members of the Middlesex School Board (one of the plaintiffs), is the daughter of Mary Miles Teachout, the presiding judge for the Superior Court in Washington County, where the suits are filed.

All parties have been asked to sign a waiver concerning any conflict of interest, he said. “We are working on that right now.”

The board member is historian Woden Teachout, who will conclude her service on the school board at the Middlesex town meeting on March 5, she said in an email responding to the Eagle Times. She and her mother have not discussed the case, she said, and she did not request any waiver. Her understanding is that all the plaintiff boards are being asked to pass resolutions that they do not object to Judge Teachout hearing the case. The Middlesex board will do that at its meeting Jan. 10, she said.

Kelley said he has already filed a waiver on behalf of himself and the other plaintiff attorneys.

 “[Judge Teachout] is a good and capable judge. I think all attorneys agree she can render a thoughtful and impartial opinion. I expect the AG’s office will concur with that,” Kelley said.

Teachout has been a judge since 1992, and was re-appointed March 19, 2015 to a six-year term by a joint assembly of the Vermont General Assembly, according to Ballotpedia.

Changing the judge would not make things go faster, and getting the waivers is the quickest course for the plaintiffs, Kelley said. “We’re moving a lot of paper as fast as we can.”

At this time, the most likely date for a superior court hearing on the case is July 11, he said.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Education Dan French is already implementing the final plan, sending Articles of Agreement to each affected district. For Westminster, Athens and Grafton the new district is to be known as the Windham Northeast Union Elementary School District, and a meeting warning has been issued for the organizational meeting on Jan. 29.

For Middlesex, the organizational meeting for the new Washington Central Unified Union School District is scheduled for Jan. 14.

The individual forming districts have a grace period to transfer assets to the new district, but once that is done the forming districts cease to exist.