As a business owner and community member, I support a “yes” vote for a unified Addison Central School District. I believe the educational opportunities, both in school and out, will be expanded and enhanced for our children in Addison Central Supervisory Union through a unified governing board.
Currently ACSU is made up of 74 board members representing nine individual boards and seven towns. This includes a supervisory board, which has 24 appointed board members from eight school district boards to oversee the operation of the central office and includes a budget that the public never directly votes. In addition, this board has oversight over the superintendent, who is responsible for all schools, while each individual school board is currently responsible for each of its own schools.
This type of governance makes management of curriculum, personnel, financial systems and student equity extremely difficult. Our Union District 3, which governs grades 7-12, has been operating successfully with one 13-member board for many years now. I support governance consolidation into one 13-member board representing preK-12 students and taxpayers from our seven town catchment area because it makes sense when it comes to operating a multimillion dollar enterprise in this day and age.
Disclosure: UD-3 policy requires me to disclose my current position on the board and that these comments are my own and not that of the board.
Mark Perrin
Middlebury