I am writing this letter to do something I never thought I would be doing… encouraging people to vote no on a school budget. As a school board member on a number of school boards (Mary Hogan, UD#3, and the new ACSD) for over 20 years, this isn’t something I do lightly. I have great respect for board work and the board members who do it and I appreciate the fact that the budget we will be asked to vote on reflects a 2% bump in overall spending, but this board seems unwilling to address a major issue in this district… the need for school consolidation.

I was on the ACSD board as we tried to look honestly at our shrinking school populations and how to best address the needs of all the students in our district. There were many things to consider and I tried my best to look at them all in a fair and equitable way. It was a divisive and emotional issue and the boards I served on did not end up making a choice to proceed with any school closures.

Since I left the board three years ago the issue of small school numbers is still an issue, and now instead of tackling the issue head on, the board (and the administration?) seem to think the answer is to offer families in other towns the opportunity to send 7 of their K/1 students to small schools like Ripton in order to keep that school’s numbers up to the very small, newly voted on, 10-student minimum, so Ripton’s 3 K/1 students don’t have to travel to a nearby school.

Before the new class size policy of “10 students, drawn from no more than two grades” was approved by this board, the old policy guidelines called for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 19 for just kindergarten and a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20 for grades 1-3.

People choose to join boards for many reasons and sometimes it’s to push an agenda.

I no longer feel that the ACSD board is looking at the need to pursue school consolidations in a nonpartisan way. It’s because of this concern that I feel the only thing I as a voter can do is to vote no on the upcoming budget and to encourage anyone else in the district who shares my concerns to do the same. This district has historically supported school budgets (unlike some of our neighbors) and I suspect that this board assumes that this year’s budget will be no different.

Perhaps voting down this budget and even next year’s and the year after if necessary, will convince the board that the voters in this district find the current model unsustainable and want to see consolidation pursued in a thoughtful way. I hope so.

Lorraine Morse

Middlebury