I can see no benefits to the town of Addison voting to unification of our school. The school must be closed. I hope not. There is not enough effort to prevent this, just do as you are told and do unification. No. This town asset is worth too much.
I want to see a group investigate taking control of the school, teacher and staff hiring, nonunion, to provide education. A topnotch educational system will attract students to our town. We have just a broken education system here in Vermont. The state Legislature cannot even correct the broken educational system, so I guess we must.
Our taxes will go up, not down. Remember, voters, we take on the debts of the towns in the district when our town has no school debt.
I want to pay less tax, not more. Once the incentives are gone our taxes will skyrocket. Maybe you can afford that but the seniors on a fixed income and the poor middle class of this town cannot. And the rich are selling all lake property and getting out or have already left with no new buyers for those vacant properties.
Cost per student will be a brief thing. Because we do not have an efficient school board/boards to cut and come into line for the number of students at the school. Close off rooms, turn off the lights, no hiring, no raises, and you pay more for your insurance, as I do not have coverage myself.
If we could save $40,000 to $70,000 on administrative savings we should do that regardless. There is no will to cut cost, just to increase paying teachers and benefits for insurance for those teachers while we go without health insurance, paying the fines or being charged thousands for coverage.
Enrollment is declining. Unless we fix this there is no fix but to keep overtaxing us for a minimal education. That does not put your child in a position to succeed in college.
No one states what these transitional costs are. No one will tell you your children will be up at sunrise to get on the bus to travel even more miles to get an education, only to be too tired to pay attention in class, to get an education. No one wants our town to have representation on the board with enough representatives to get a fair vote. Outnumbered you lose every time.
Bulk purchasing should be done for the school district now. Why not now? Just set it up and do it that way, now, to save.
If we have declining populations, raising taxes is not the answer to attracting more students to our area. If we are to “sink or swim” I suggest we swim to save the school, take control, hire our own nonunion teachers and education with the basics. The extras we need can come from volunteers to the school. Some times dumping out all you have in the box and starting over is the answer.
Why are we doing this so only a few can benefit? There is no control, the state is taking that away from us. The teachers get the increased pay, we get the increased tax bill and our kids get less of an education. I want better education for these children who are just not up to standards of those in other states headed for college. By closing and providing sums needed to parents to send their children to a school of their choice, our town children will be better educated, with the extra programs that parents want: languages, music, art, sports, dance, advanced learning, and  many other classes not provided. The answer is Internet classrooms to save teacher costs while providing any and all types of education for students with excellence not limited.
Vote NO to unification and force your school board to make cuts or reorganize to keep your school. Remember the “one-room” school where we got our education, and went on to get college degrees.
Elizabeth Armstrong
West Addison