STARKSBORO — Rumblings are getting louder that Starksboro might disengage from the four-town Mount Abraham Unified School District after the district last year began discussing potential elementary school closing.

Starksboro voters at their Feb. 28 annual town meeting unanimously passed Article 11 on the warning, which “authorize(d) the community to determine and then inform voters of the steps required (which would include a future vote by the Town’s voters) to withdraw from MAUSD.”

That article was approved from the floor by voice vote.

MAUSD officials have been evaluating different educational delivery options as part of an effort to reduce costs while continuing to offer quality programming. Two of the options being considered could lead to closing a couple of the district’s elementary schools, potentially including Robinson Elementary.

“Community members of Starksboro petitioned to include Article 11, and the Selectboard accepted its inclusion, to understand how Starksboro residents value maintaining our town school, Robinson Elementary, which has been considered for closure again even with the most recent ENDs Monitoring Report showing (higher test scores),” selectboard members Carin McCarthy and Koran Cousino told the Independent. They also noted Robinson’s enrollment is expected to increase next year (to 106 students), based on information shared by Principal Andy Weis at town meeting.

ON THE TABLE

MAUSD officials back in October identified three education delivery models to explore more in depth:

• Keeping all schools open.
• Operating two elementary schools and a regional middle/high school.
• Operating a regional middle/high school and two elementary schools with grade banding (grouping students in a school building by age rather than geography).

MAUSD currently operates four elementary schools, along with Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School in Bristol. At the October meeting where the three models were selected for further study, some school board members, including Starksboro representative Kristen Toy, advocated for keeping options open when evaluating which schools are considered for closure.

Cousino and McCarthy said the petition to warn Article 11 garnered 198 signatures, more than twice the 75 required.

“With this response, it is fair to say that Starksboro residents care deeply about having a say in what happens, if anything, to the town elementary school,” they wrote.

Starksboro voters have previously demonstrated how much they care about their elementary school. In May 2022, more than 200 Starksboro residents voted at a special meeting to withdraw from MAUSD. At the time, Starksboro resident and Save Our Schools member Nancy Cornell explained the withdrawal vote was “really about preserving our town’s right to vote on school closure.”

Starksboro was ultimately denied exit from MAUSD in August 2022, when a “no” vote from the town of New Haven stopped the town’s withdrawal effort. Voters in New Haven, Bristol and Monkton had been asked whether to ratify Starksboro’s withdrawal vote, with Bristol and Monkton voting in favor.

McCarthy and Cousino noted Starksboro’s Save Our Schools group — which played a key role in previous withdrawal efforts — has organized again in response to recent MAUSD Board actions.

“We hope that we will not need to withdraw from the school district to keep our school open, but we want to understand the updated requirements for withdrawing from the school district if we need to do so,” McCarthy and Cousino wrote.

They noted that rules around withdrawing from a school district have changed since 2022. That year, Gov. Phil Scott signed into law bill H.727, which in part made significant changes to the withdrawal process for towns looking to separate from a unified school district.

“The new rules create a more complex process,” Cousino and McCarthy said. “This approval of (Article 11) shows the community’s support for exploring those new rules for communities like ours to pursue withdrawal, in the event that that becomes necessary.”

Cousino and McCarthy highlighted discussion around Article 11 and Robinson Elementary School in general at the town’s annual meeting. They noted that at the start of the gathering, Weis invited residents to stand if they had attended or been involved in educational and community offerings at Robinson.

“Nearly the entire gymnasium was on their feet,” they wrote. “The school plays a central role in Starksboro’s community, and the community plays a central role in Robinson’s curriculum.”

McCarthy and Cousino said there was also “expression of strong support” for MAUSD board members from Starksboro, “who have asked the MAUSD Board to consider CESAs/BOCEs (two kinds of resource-sharing structures for districts) as one key cost-savings approach that would not involve closing schools.” Residents also had questions for lawmakers in attendance about schools, housing and support for rural communities like Starksboro, they said.

WHAT’S NEXT

As for discussion around Article 11, Cousino and McCarthy said, “this portion of the Town Meeting provided the opportunity for residents to talk about whose responsibility it is to represent Starksboro’s interests and how we might need to take a stand for our school.”

“There was active discussion about whether or not to name the Starksboro Save Our Schools organization as the action group, but it was determined that the message that we want to send to the district is that our community — as a whole — stands by our school and has the support of the people to follow the legal process to ensure fair representation in all decisions.”

Cousino and McCarthy said Save Our Schools group members have volunteered to study the new withdrawal process and develop a potential timeline for initiating that process if necessary.

“The timeline will depend, in part, on the MAUSD board’s willingness to fairly consider the options moving forward according to our Articles of Agreement,” McCarthy and Cousino said.

They noted that if the need for a special meeting arises, the town would host “a community event to answer questions and address concerns.”

“There is a strong and active following of this topic on Front Porch Forum and we will provide as much information as available to inform the residents in advance of any pending actions,” they wrote.

McCarthy and Cousino also highlighted Starksboro residents’ concerns over aspects of MAUSD spending and expressed gratitude for Starksboro’s school board representatives, who they said, “have proactively asked budgetary questions and tried to convince the administration and board that there are many better ways to address financial and program challenges that would not require closing schools.”

Starksboro selectboard members inquired about such options in questions directed to the MAUSD Community Engagement Committee following a presentation given by that committee to the selectboard on Feb. 3. Those questions also asked about financial considerations for the options being explored, any administrative cost reductions being considered, busing, a timeline for next steps, and other topics related to the district’s exploration of educational delivery models.

Cousino and McCarthy said they were still waiting to hear back from district officials on those questions last week.

“The people of Starksboro have demonstrated their value of the Robinson School and we aim to maintain the agreed upon democratically representative process in any changes that take place moving forward,” McCarthy and Cousino wrote.