School advocates reject proposed Act 46 rewrite

A trio of local community school advocates testifying before the House Education Committee last week expressed grave concerns about some of the Act 46 updates recently proposed by the Vermont State Board of Education.

In a commentary last week that rebutted our editorial, State Board of Education Chair Oliver Olsen took us to task for suggesting the SBE had more leeway to rule on Ripton’s behalf and he denied the SBE was “targeting small schools for consolidation.”

For many of us living in the small towns of Addison County, the locus of community is without a doubt our elementary schools.

Unable to obtain school services elsewhere, Ripton administrators are considering rejoining the district. And now, state officials and lawmakers are trying to make sure another departure like Ripton’s doesn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lynn’s editorial in the same edition missed the mark with an opinion that was based on a flawed understanding of Vermont education law and the powers of the State Board of Education.

The impact of Lincoln withdrawing from the Mt. Abe district and our high school can be significant.

We know that many people have questions about the ANWSD/MAUSD Merger Study Committee. As non-school board committee members of the study committee, it has taken us some time to get up to speed on the issues and language of the work.

Ripton school officials said they’ll try to make the best of what they believe was an incorrect decision by the Vermont State Board of Education on Jan. 19 to designate the town its own supervisory district.

“Here’s the good news,” educational consultant Nate Levenson told the Mount Abraham Unified School District board Tuesday night. “You have a number of very good options to think about…”

Ripton’s Molly Witters is right on target; State Board of Education Chair Oliver Olsen is not. 

The Vermont State Board of Education (VSBE) on Wednesday morning officially granted Ripton’s wish to become independent from the Addison Central School District. Now comes the hard part.

Watching the MAUSD/ANWSD Merger Study Committee (MSC) right now is like watching people evacuate a ship into rickety lifeboats without confirming that the ship is indeed sinking.

Lincoln and Ripton, which voted last year to withdraw from their school districts, have begun exploring the idea of creating a new supervisory union to handle the administrative services they might not be able to afford individually.

Dissatisfied with the pace and effectiveness of talks toward a possible compromise with the Addison Central School District, the Ripton School Board is exploring a public education union with the town of Lincoln.

School consolidation and closure continued to dominate local public education discussions this past year, as districts searched for solutions to the long-term problems of declining enrollment and rising education costs.