The Mount Abraham Unified School District (MAUSD) Administration and Board are currently exploring six new “education delivery options.” Soon, they aim to choose one to implement in the 2027-2028 school year. One of those options keeps the same number of schools as currently but moves grades 7&8 to the four elementary schools. The other five options would close two elementary schools. As the Board prepares to meet on October 14 to consider which option to pursue for implementation in 2027-2028, community members in Bristol, Monkton, New Haven and Starksboro have many questions, including these:

• Articles of Agreement that govern MAUSD (2017) stipulate: “School Closure. The New SD Board shall not close any school conveyed to the New SD by a Forming Elementary District within the first four (4) years of operation of the New SD. After four (4) years of operation, the New SD may close a school conveyed to the New SD by a Forming Elementary District upon affirmative votes of the New SD Board of Directors and the voters, voting by Australian ballot, of the Member Town in which the school is located.” Is the Board committed to abiding by this legally binding Article of Agreement? 

• What does the research say, and what do the MAUSD Administration and Board understand, about the value, to students and communities, of small, community schools?

• What does research say, and what do the Administration and Board understand, about the unintended negative effects, on students and on communities, of closing schools?

• What does research and recent practice in VT tell us about whether closing schools will actually save money?

• What current information has MAUSD considered about projected new housing availability in the four towns?

• For each of the options currently being considered, what will be the effect on students’ time on buses, and on transportation costs?

• What data has been collected to address the financial cost and feasibility of renovations required for the reconfigurations suggested by the Administration?

• Four of the options under consideration list “PK” (pre-kindergarten) as one of the groups to be served. What are the educational and financial advantages and disadvantages to adding public PK, especially for towns, such as Starksboro, that already have a licensed Cooperative Preschool open to all, partly funded by state funds through MAUSD?

• How has the Board sought community input on the plans being considered and about other ways to control costs? 

• The New Solutions K-12 Report (2021), commissioned by the MAUSD Administration, analyzed a variety of cost-containing measures that would not require closing schools but would lead to significant savings. What less radical options, like those in the report, will MAUSD be considering; and when will the Board be exploring options such as those?

• Aside from reducing or consolidating educational delivery models, what other cost-saving mechanisms or collaborations have been considered and thoroughly explored?

• The MAUSD Articles of Agreement also stipulate that if a school is closed, the school district must offer to sell the building back to the town for one dollar.  What assumptions is MAUSD making about towns’ willingness to take back the ownership of closed school buildings, taking on the cost of the upkeep and possible renovation of those buildings, and how are those assumptions figured into the projected savings of each option?

• Why would the MAUSD Administration and Board be considering such radical changes at the very time when the VT School Redistricting Task Force is developing school governance models that may entirely eliminate our school board and our school district in the near future? Isn’t the timing of all this problematic at best?

We, the undersigned, have not seen definitive evidence that the options the Board and Administration are exploring would provide better educational outcomes for our school children. We urge the Board and Administration to answer these questions and abide by the legally binding Articles of Agreement moving forward.

Dan Baker, Starksboro

Erin Buckwalter, Starksboro

Dennis Casey, Starksboro

Nancy Cornell, Starksboro

Jaime Deacon, Starksboro

Louis Dupont, Starksboro

Marguerite Gregory, Starksboro

Susan Klaiber, Starksboro

Carin H. McCarthy, Starksboro

Jim Runcie, Starksboro

Dave Thompson, Starksboro