By Katy Savage, Standard Staff
Hartland is considering branching away from Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union to comply with Act 46, the school merger law, because the Vermont State Board of Education decided that school districts can either operate public schools or offer school choice — not both.
Superintendent David Baker has showed Hartland residents how expensive school choice is, about $500,000, but the majority of residents say they don’t care, he said.
School choice is important to districts in Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, so important, towns want it no matter the cost.
Hartland school board chair Bettina Read spoke informally with the chair of Thetford Elementary School earlier this month about merging together.
The schools are about 25 miles apart.
Thetford Elementary has about 200 students and designates Thetford Academy, an independent school, as its high school, sending an additional 200 students there. There are 313 students at Hartland.
“Some of their students and families are interested in school choice,” Read said. “It would be another school choice town that we could merge with.”
Read’s not sure what consolidation with Thetford would look like.
Thetford Elementary School is part of Orange East Supervisory Union. It’s considering consolidation scenarios with Norwich, Sharon and Strafford. Hartland was invited to join the conversation because of its ties with Thetford Academy and Hanover High School.
The majority of high school students in Hartland (46) go to Hartford High School. Twenty-one go to Windsor High School and 20 attend Hanover High School. About 10 students go to Thetford Academy.
“There are a lot of kids coming this way. We just figured why not,” said Thetford Elementary School Board chair Shannon Darrah about including Hartland.
Read’s conversations with Thetford remain informal until the WSESU decides how it will proceed. An Act 46 committee meeting was scheduled Wednesday night, after the Vermont Standard’s deadline.
The state board’s decision put pressure on the three school choice districts in Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union (Weathersfield, West Windsor and Hartland) that pay tuition for students to attend high schools in different towns and states.
Windsor High School would have to close or become a private school for those three school choice towns to continue offering school choice — neither of which are popular options. Otherwise it would need to become a regional high school.
“We have not engaged in talks with any other districts. We are committed to WSESU. That is the frustrating part aboutAct 46. It is threatening all the great stuff our SU has going for it. The four towns work very well together, we are contiguous and close in proximity,” Weathersfield School Board chair Nate McKeen said.
At recent community forums, residents stressed the value they place on school choice.
Most school-choice students at Weathersfield split between going to Windsor High School and Springfield High School. A handful of students go to Woodstock, Hanover and Kimball Union Academy.
“It is a question of fairness and equitability in a town as geographically spread out as Weathersfield. It is an hour bus ride to Windsor for those who live much closer to Springfield,” McKeen said.
Albert Bridge School board chair Art Keating felt the decision had a strong potential of breaking up the supervisory union according to September meeting minutes.
Weathersfield, West Windsor and Hartland could become one district to retain school choice within the current supervisory union but that would require at least 1,100 students under Act 46. There are 587 students in those schools now.
All of this is pending tweaks the upcoming legislative session could make to Act 46. School officials are hoping for a reinterpretation of the law, especially as it relates to school choice.
“It would be a shame to not be able to work with the supervisory union we’re in because we’ve already done so much together,” Read said, mentioning a unified curriculum put in place last year and the consolidation of special education instructors as mandated by the legislature. “We’d have to really start over with all those things.”
This article first appeared in the October 29, 2015 edition of the Vermont Standard.