Letter to the editor: For merger vote, it’s OK to question long-held beliefs

Three years ago, I joined the Community Engagement Committee of the MAUSD school board as a volunteer because I knew the big challenges we faced as a district and I was confident our five-town community would come together to find creative solutions to the problem.

The MAUSD Board and Merger Committee assert our Nov. 8 vote will be on the Articles of Agreement ONLY, not whether to combine schools or move students.

This hysteria is being created by a group in Starksboro that is hyper focused on the perceived closure of Robinson Elementary School and nothing else.

Placing merger decisions in the hands of a 13-member board across nine schools and eight towns is not in the best interest of students or taxpayers.

Whether we’d save money if the merger happens is questionable at best. But there is certainly much we’d lose if it were to pass.

On Nov. 8, residents of Addison County will cast votes that determine how our young people, K-12, will move toward adulthood.

The next steps in the potential return of Addison’s former central school building to the town will almost certainly be a public forum followed by a town-wide vote on the question, according to Selectboard Chair Jeff Kauffman.

As some in the community may know, a bus to the Vergennes Elementary and Vergennes High School ran an hour late in both the morning and the afternoon during the week of Oct. 10. This was due to a severe bus driver shortage.

With twice the number of towns in a new district and diluted representation from each town, we should expect any hopes of local decisions and community engagement regarding our schools to diminish significantly. 

At its recent “Q & A” meetings in Bristol and Vergennes, the MAUSD-ANWSD Merger Study Committee claimed that the upcoming merger vote is “only” about merging governance.

Potential school closures and consolidations were among the concerns voiced by attendees of a merger study committee meeting held at Mount Abraham Union High School earlier this week.

There are better ways to improve education for all of our students and to prudently manage taxpayer dollars.

Despite the Starksboro Save our School committee’s publication of our analysis that the likely tax increase was closer to 3%, the damage had been done.

This merger will affect families in both districts and we deserve to better understand both the benefits and the costs of merging before we agree to this change. 

Voters should be deeply skeptical of any claims for financial benefits from the proposed merger.