TOWNSHEND-The Vermont School Redistricting Task Force broke the folks assembled at Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School into small groups to take testimony regarding their thoughts on redistricting on Oct. 16, forcing about 80 people online to have their own chat.
And not everyone was pleased with the setup, although state officials offered reassurance that comments can still be accepted at ADM.Redistricting@vermont.gov.
Following a presentation of about 15 minutes, those present were split into individual feedback stations in a room adjacent to the gymnasium, where the main meeting was held.
For remote participants, during the ensuing about 45 minutes, sound was muted for a short time, and then the visual was suspended.
"The meeting is muted while participants are engaging in an interactive activity," wrote Chrissy Gilhuly, state Senate operations manager, who was monitoring the online portion of the meeting. "We are gathering the same feedback that you can offer using the survey link."
"Why would you mute the public from any and all sidebar conversations?" asked one online participant. "This seems like a perfect snapshot of what will happen if we all live too far from our local schools to attend a school board meeting [or other meetings] in person on a weeknight."
Ultimately, the themes that emerged from the small station discussions were summarized back to the full group.
Parents in attendance both in person and online expressed concern regarding school choice, student travel time to and from school, busing costs, health-care costs, the education quality where students are versus what might come in bigger districts, and loss of local control.
"Without Leland & Gray, there's no more heart to this valley anymore," said Leland & Gray teacher Terry Davidson Berger of Townshend.
Just one representative from each of the Windham Central, Northeast, and Southeast supervisory unions attended the meeting, although a group of them met the next day for an exploratory discussion regarding redistricting.
The person who attended told the local group that the link to access the meeting had been changed at the last moment, so many people couldn't get in online.
One woman who was much closer to Townshend than Brattleboro, and had been online posted, in the live chat that she was so upset with the process, she got in her car and drove to Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School, where the gym was just about half full.
Parents question benefits of redrawing districts
Moderator Sue McCormack, a consultant who facilitates the task force, opened the meeting by explaining its scope of work.
"While school closures are not in the charge or intent of this Task Force, in Act 73 one of the areas of consideration for our work requires that we seek 'opportunities to support local elementary schools, central middle schools, and regional high schools, with the least disruption to students.' And we will do that," McCormick said.
The mandate of the 11-member Task Force, which includes state Sen. Wendy Harrison among its six lawmakers, is to consider and recommend new district boundaries/configurations by December, as part of Act 73. School closure considerations fall under the Commission on the Future of Public Education and other entities (Agency of Education, State Board of Education, etc.).
Key considerations for the task force are boundaries, transportation barriers, demographic trends (declining enrollment statewide with regional variation), aging infrastructure, increased student needs, inequitable opportunities across districts, and rising costs/property taxes.
Task Force members noted multiple avenues to offer input, including comments submitted online and on paper. All feedback methods carry equal weight, they assured.
The Task Force is gathering input to inform new district boundaries that will be drawn. These maps will be provided to the Legislature, along with a comprehensive summary of public feedback, intended to inform legislative deliberations during the session.
While members said no hard mapping decisions have been made, some maps posted to the Committee Materials section of the School District Redistricting Task Force site are being discussed.
Discussion included statewide challenges that include declining student enrollment overall, significant regional disparities, aging school buildings, increasing student needs, uneven educational opportunities, rising costs, and property tax pressures.
Task Force members said they'll consider uncertainty at the federal level, low trust between citizens and the government, and the need to proceed with transparency and respect as a guiding context to inform map development, and make recommendations.
"Redistricting will also change the flow of people in the area which will have impacts to lots of other things, including businesses and club sports among others," said one attendee. "I hope the study goes beyond the boundaries of education and considers these impacts as well."
"My questions are, who does this benefit financially?" asked online participant Erin Stack. "Who does it benefit at all? If the schools didn't ask for it, the parents didn't ask for it, it's not in the best interest of our kids, it's not in the best interest of our schools. No one I've talked to has any positive to share. I'm having trouble discerning who or what this action helps or serves, if it's not our communities."
This was the only Task Force meeting scheduled for southern Vermont. The next two meetings are Oct. 22 at Rutland High School and Oct. 28 at Winooski High School.
Other news about education reform/redistricting
• Marlboro seeks townspeople's views: Marlboro's school board is now conducting a town-wide survey regarding its school and plans to pass along whatever input is received along to the Task Force.
The Marlboro board has said it's considering merging to form a larger district, likely with Brattleboro's Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) or River Valley, which serves Dover and Wardsboro.
That scenario would see the Marlboro School Board disband and get one seat or more on a larger district board in proportion to the student population from Marlboro.
A second option under consideration would keep Marlboro as a district but merge it into a larger supervisory union with, most likely, the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union or a "mega-supervisory union."
If you're in the Marlboro district now and would like to provide input, you can mail board Chair Dan MacArthur (dmacarthur@windhamcentralboard.org), Vice Chair Rachel Boyden (rboyden@windhamcentralboard.org), or Clerk Andrea Burke (aburke@windhamcentralboard.org).
• State commission invites participation in survey: The Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont is reaching out for feedback on Act 73, a law said to be enacted "in response to residents' concerns about high and rising property taxes and a desire to increase quality educational opportunities for students."
"The intent of the law is to strengthen the public education system, mitigate costs, and improve educational opportunities for students," the Commission said in a press release.
And the purpose of the survey, found at bit.ly/VTEdSurvey, is "to gather your perspectives on how the state can achieve its goals and improve educational opportunities for all students."
The Vermont Legislature will be considering how best to achieve this transformation over the next several months, and it will ultimately be up to it, with the assistance of the Commission on the Future of Public Education and the School District Redistricting Task Force, to make these decisions.
Surveys are requested by the end of October.
A link to the public comment section also appears on the Task Force website.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.