Letter to the editor: Give public say on school’s fate

Asking the entire district to vote on the fate of a single town’s elementary school feels like it will pit towns against one another.

Voters in the nine towns making up the Addison Northwest and Mount Abraham Unified school districts on Tuesday voted 4,282-1,886 to oppose the merger of the two entities as a way to combat declining enrollment and rising overhead costs.

Merging with Mount Abe offers a pathway to new conversations and new opportunities to address our stubbornly chronic condition.

For the third time, the Select Board of the Town of Shoreham has not received a response or even an acknowledgment of a letter sent to the Addison County School District Board of Directors.

The Addison Central School District Board on Monday agreed to revise the ACSD charter in a manner that would give local voters more of a say in whether their schools should be closed.

It’s heartening that the ACSD board has agreed in principle to modify article 14 of its charter agreement to allow the towns of small schools a larger voice in whether to close a school.

During a meeting held at Mount Abraham Union High School last week, the State Board of Education determined they need more time to decide how the Lincoln School District (LSD) will receive supervisory union services.

Ripton officials are vowing to press for rule changes at the state and local levels that would give the rural community, and others like it, more of a say in the future of their tiny schools and how their students are educated.

Residents on Thursday decided to rejoin the Middlebury-area school district after leaving it for fear of losing their elementary school.

After attending the Merger Study Committee meeting on Sept. 20, we came away quite disturbed.

Merging would mean moving school governance even farther away from the students and their schools and communities.

At our Ripton School Board Meeting about our upcoming Sept 29 vote, many in our community came together to hear and ask questions about the current situation. While there is no easy solution, we were able to come together and feel heard. 

Resident urges No vote on whether Ripton should rejoin the Addison Central School District.

Ripton residents on Thursday, Sept. 29, will be asked whether they’d like to end their two-year effort to separate from the Addison Central School District, a move townspeople endorsed as a way of preserving their small elementary school.

We find ourselves nearing another important townwide vote on how to best educate our children given current education funding laws and state statutes.