Dear Community Members,
On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, the Act 46 Committee will meet at Doty School starting at 7:00 p.m. to finalize its report to the Full Board of the Washington Central Supervisory Union. The Act 46 Committee is considering what change, if any, should occur to the governance structure of member schools of the Washington Central Supervisory Union which includes all of the member towns’ local schools and U-32 Middle and High School. Under Act 46, the Vermont Legislature has expressed a preference for a “preferred model” which is a one board one, budget governance structure. Under the preferred model, each of the local school boards and the U-32 Board would be dissolved and cease to exist and each of the local school district budgets and U-32 budget would be eliminated. Instead, a single board with proportional representation, most likely based on population of the member towns, would replace the local boards and that single board would have governing responsibility over all the schools and develop a single budget for all five local schools, the U-32 Middle and High School, and the administration office.
The Act 46 Study Group is also considering an alternative governance model which focuses on maintaining empowered local boards and local budgets, or some other variation of the one board, one budged model. Some dispute exists on whether the Act 46 Study Group can move forward on an alternative model and still be constituted as an Act 46 Study Group.
There will likely be a significant change in governance under either an alternative model or the preferred model and there will be a significant change in how the schools are funded. If the single board, single budget structure is adopted, a single tax rate for a single budget will apply, necessarily resulting in some increases for some towns in their tax responsibility and some decreases for some towns for their tax responsibility in funding a single entity.
The historic significance of this change should motivate our communities to attend these Act 46 study group meetings with questions regarding how any change in governance would function and what potential impact it would have on the community. The overall goal is to provide equal educational opportunity for all students within our current Supervisory Union. When there is limited financial resources, and there are limited financial resources, how that opportunity is created and distributed will probably vary according to community needs.
Given the significance of this potential change in governance, you are welcome to attend these Act 46 Study Group meetings.
Ultimately, the Act 46 Study Group can vote to recommend a governance change to the towns, and each town then votes on whether to approve the change.
Again, the next Act 46 Study Group meeting will be at the Doty School, Wednesday, June 22, 2016 starting at 7:00 p.m.
Oct 21, 2024, 6 to 8 PM
Southwest Asian & North African Community DinnerOct 24, 2024, 6 to 8 PM
MRVBC NOLS Wilderness First AidOct 26, 8 AM to 12 PM, Oct 27, 2024