Vermont’s school redistricting task force sent a cautionary message to the Legislature and Gov. Phil Scott’s education department when it voted this week to recommend voluntary mergers of school districts, rather than a fixed number determined by subjective and controversial maps. 

The recommendation runs counter to the intent of Act 73 and is a reversal of the task force’s early work, which had focused on devising viable maps to shoehorn Vermont’s 119 school districts into larger, more compressed districts.

The key comment from task board member and former superintendent Jay Badams was this: “Our feeling is that, if we force this level and degree of change on our districts and our (supervisory unions), it simply won’t work.”

That comment was the essence of a 170-page proposal endorsed by a majority of the 11-member task force. A previous proposal that consolidated all 119 districts into 13 based around the state’s 15 Career and Technical Education centers, was rejected 8-3 at the Nov. 10 task force meeting.

Badams went on to say, in a Vt. Digger story written by reporter Corey McDonald, that research the task force uncovered has cast doubt on the amount of potential savings consolidation would achieve. 

“We’re speculating in thinking that large scale district consolidation is going to somehow save money,” Badams said. “The research that we’ve consulted indicates, at best, that it might and it might not. To put the system through that much radical change for the possibility that there might be savings sure seems like a lot to ask or our communities.”

The task force’s voluntary merger proposal — crafted by Badams, Jennifer Botzojorns, a retired superintendent for the Kingdom East School District and Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, D-Norwich — “lays out a 10-year plan where districts would be incentivized to merge to access state construction aid, and to coordinate on developing regional high schools,” according to McDonald’s story.

The proposal drew immediate push back by Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders, who criticized the task force’s recommendation for not following the intent of Act 73, which was to “recommend a specific map that would satisfy the parameters of your charge as the redistricting task force.” She also criticized the plan because it would add “an additional layer of bureaucracy and also costs.”

But task force members rejected Sauder’s mischaracterization of their proposal.

Rep. Edye Graning, D-Jericho, task force co-chair, said she was “incredibly distraught” when the secretary alleged the plan, which calls for cooperative service agencies working together to enhance buying power, would add more bureaucracy and expense. “That’s not what they are, and that’s not what they do, and I don’t want that to derail the process,” Graning said, adding that the research demonstrated how similar cooperatives saved school districts money in other rural states.

At this point in the story, it’s worthwhile to recall why the task force was formed and how its members were chosen. 

The task force was formed through Act 73, the state’s sweeping education reform bill passed this spring and put into law on July 1, 2025. It has 11 members, comprised of three members from the House, three from the Senate and five former school administrators and business managers. The members were appointed by the Speaker of the House, the Senate Committee on Committees, and Gov. Phil Scott. It held its first meeting in August 2025 and has met seven times since. It plans another meeting on Nov. 20 ahead of a Dec. 1 deadline to submit its final report.

The task force was formed because the legislative committee process is not well suited to hear citizen voices around the state, do the research and spend the time needed on one specific task.

That background, and the process involved, provides ample credence for the public to trust in what the committee finds, which was this: 

• the five-month timeline to devise up to three potential maps for the Legislature to consider, and use to consolidate the state’s school districts, was too compressed, and was fundamentally flawed.

• better then to propose a voluntary merger plan over 10 years, along with strong financial incentives that encourage mergers, and let districts and towns craft what works for them.

The proposal fits Vermont’s bottom-up style of government, where government starts with the people first — rather than dictates from the top down.

Rep. Rebecca Holcombe aptly replied to the charge that the task force’s recommendation didn’t meet the requirements of its duty under Act 73 when she said the “responsible thing is to say, that’s not actually responsible, but here’s some other things you could do instead.”

It’s to the task force’s credit they recognized the weakness in the directive. Rather than pursue a misguided notion, they drafted a viable path forward for education reform. If the legislature is smart, it’ll take that approach and run with it.

That not only avoids the likely battles of towns and school districts fighting with a dictate-heavy Montpelier, but frees up the legislature to tackle the state’s two biggest issues: affordable housing and healthcare. And that’s trouble enough to solve.

Angelo Lynn