No Buses? No Sports? No Arts Program?
Attend Monday's merger meeting at U32, 6pm if you care about local students. This is super important - April 8th, 6 pm at U32 high school. Especially for any family with children or anyone that cares about them!
Why? I was recently made aware of some very concerning developments regarding next year's school budgets. I am late catching up to all this, so please be kind if I get something incorrect! I am boosting the signal on another post I saw about this, with some additional thoughts.
If we can't manage to organize a single school board entity on Monday, it is the school district's children that will likely be paying the price next September. We will forfeit the chance to create our own single entity budget, and we'll all be stuck with a budget imposed on the district by the state. This could mean a bare bones budget without some things our kids count on: No School Busing? No Sports? No Arts? These are all things that are not considered 'essential' legally, so these are the areas where cuts would be likely.
My understanding is that the last meeting was adjourned without having accomplished the task of creating a single entity, due to strong feelings about the merger. Whether you agree with the merger or not is beside the point so far as our school students are concerned; if we don't accomplish this, we won't have the opportunity to create a single entity budget to present to the state in time. Not having a budget to present to the state is a HUGE problem. Monday is the last chance we have to organize a single entity. If not, we will be unable to make a single budget, so the state will do it for us, as they must.
Dorothy Naylor from Calais said it with a lot more detail than I can:
"To be absolutely clear, I am writing this as citizen Dorothy Naylor, who is on the Calais School Board, WCSU Executive Board, and WCSU Supervisory Union Board. I do not speak for any organization other than my disorganized self!
April 8th Organizational Meeting at U-32 is required by the state to initiate the formation of the single new merged entity – a single board governance structure. It will be a regular Town Meeting open floor meeting - all voting will be from the floor as happened in the February Organizational Meeting at U-32 that was adjourned.
The April 9th Australian ballot budget votes (except for Worcester which will be a floor vote) are necessary under our current 6 board governance structure. The U-32 budget and the individual elementary school budgets of East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester are needed so there is money available to issue staff contracts for 2019/2020 school year by April 15, 2019. (Calais and Berlin already approved their budgets on Town Meeting Day.)
First, understand that the budgets for the five elementary schools and U-32 that have passed and likely will pass on April 9th are only for our current six-board governance structure. The numbers can be used to fashion a budget for a one-board merged district but the state will not consider them separately as "the budget" for a force merged single board.
Yes, once we agree to a single entity with a single board, you will be asked to vote that single budget which will encompass all 6 schools.
What to do on April 8, 2019?
Like a lottery drawing, there are many balls bouncing around and of course we all want to pick the winning number – which will be different for different people!
Here are the two most likely paths. Choose very carefully, the only likelihood of a do-over is a positive outcome by the court(s).
Organize the new district by completing the warned Articles
1. allows time to elect a merged board and establish (via a 30 day warned meeting) a merged budget for a single board prior to June 30, 2019.
2. may allow us to ask for a year delay - this depends on passage of a particular senate version of H.39 and the governor signing it . A year's delay would allow us to step back, and take a breath while we work together on the Articles of Agreement (basically a contract) .
Adjourn the meeting again.
1. if we do that there will not be enough time to seat a merged board and establish a merged district budget
2. we will arrive at July 1, 2019, with no board and no budget
3. we will be at the mercy of whatever new rule the Agency of Education wishes to adopt as to how our merged budget will be established and therefore how much it will be
We don't expect any action by either the legislature or the court which might inform our decision before this April 8, 2019 meeting."
Me again:
I don't have enough information to try to give anyone advice about whether a merger is good or not. But I can for sure tell you that I'd rather we create our own budget - and keep the school buses rolling, sports teams playing, and arts expanding the kids horizons, than leave it up to chance.
Kudos to you if you've read this far! You care!
Oct 12, 2024, 9 AM to 4 PM
VYO's Music Together Starts Sept. 14Oct 12, 2024, 10 to 11 AM
Baby Lap-sit & Play at the LibraryOct 16, 2024, 10 to 11 AM