Let there be no doubt: The Stowe School Board wants the state to let Stowe schools remain the way they are.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about Stowe schools’ future, largely because of Act 46, the state law that requires districts to consider merging into larger organizations.
Some critics assert the school board wants a merger with the Elmore-Morristown school district.
Others point to a study by the Stowe Local School’s Initiative — a community group — about the possibility of converting Stowe Middle and High School into a private school.
But Act 46 also allows school districts to apply for an “alternative structure” — that is, an alternative to merging with other school districts. Stowe intends to apply for state approval for an alternative structure.
Stowe’s point is that it’s already accomplishing the goals of Act 46 — healthy enrollment, efficient management and excellent results.
Stowe is in a supervisory union with the Elmore-Morristown district, and that cooperation has been a key to efficiency. The Stowe board will continue to work with the Elmore-Morristown board on areas where their interests intersect, probably meeting on a monthly basis.
“We also decided to attend each other’s budget-development meetings in January,” said Jim Brochhausen, a Stowe School Board member. “Unless we know where their money goes, we won’t know their priorities.”
Stowe will gather public comment at its regular board meetings on the governance plan it will present to the state, and will also hold a community input session on Sept. 13, 2017.
Part of the alternative structure process requires the school district to do an evaluation of itself, and both the self-evaluation and proposal are due to the Vermont Agency of Education on Nov. 30, 2017.
“If the community input session is not until September, and you are only having monthly meetings, that means you will only have one more meeting after that to address public comments in the proposal?” asked Lisa Senecal, a leader of the Stowe Local Schools Initiative.
“We are seeking comment throughout the process, but if there are concerns that we won’t have enough time to complete the study, we will probably add more meetings,” said board member Cara Zimmerman.
The work plan is subject to revision, and will be reassessed in May.
The state rules for establishing an alternative structure have not been finalized yet, and Superintendent Tracy Wrend doubts they will be until the legislative session ends next May.
“As you know, these rules are of critical importance to the future of Stowe schools, and the Stowe School Board’s desire to be approved as an alternative structure,” said state Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, in an email. “But, the fact is, right now, the rules as drafted are so onerous and put into place such a high bar, I am not confident any proposal for an alternative structure will be approved, save for reasons of geographic isolation.”
The state took public comment on the draft rules earlier this month. Scheuermann added her voice to the mix for Stowe, and requested that all public comments be posted on the Agency of Education’s website for the public.
The school board did not submit any comments on Stowe’s behalf.
Independent school
Nobody really knows at this point what the state will or will not approve, other than merging school districts, so a community group began looking last year at the possibility of privatizing Stowe’s schools. It presented the study to the school board and the community a few weeks ago, but the board didn’t think the plan would be right for the town.
For example, one of the Stowe Local Schools Initiative’s goals with an independent school would be to maintain similar per-pupil spending, but it doesn’t yet have a budget proposal that people can review, and that’s a concern for the board.
The group’s plan also leaves Stowe Elementary School out of the proposal to privatize the middle and high school, and Brochhausen is worried about that.
“If left alone, I think we’d lose local control of the elementary school,” he said.
The initiative’s plan is to convert the middle and high school to a designated independent school — essentially, the schools designated for Stowe students to attend.
However, under the law, an elementary school can’t be designated, which left questions about whether teachers could maintain their pension if the school became independent.
To protect the teachers, the initiative decided to leave the elementary school alone, and thinks local control can be maintained.
“If Stowe became a non-operating district at any level, it would no longer be a ‘like’ district with any of the surrounding towns,” said Rob Roper, a member of the initiative. “The state wouldn’t be able to merge a K-5 district with a K-12 district, and there are no other K-5 districts, so they’d leave Stowe Elementary alone.”
Brochhausen said Stowe Elementary wouldn’t necessarily maintain local control, because nowhere in the independent school study does it say members of the private school’s board of trustees would have to be Stowe residents.
‘A bias toward public’
The Stowe School Board reaffirmed its commitment to an alternative, standalone structure — in cooperation with Elmore-Morristown, its partner in the Lamoille South Supervisory Union — in hopes of maintaining the K-12 continuum of education the district currently boasts.
“I have a bias toward public education, and I don’t see anything worth jeopardizing that,” said Cam Page, school board chair.
Neither an alternative structure nor an independent school is a sure thing, and without finalized rules for an alternative structure, the board is assuming it can get it approved by the state.
When people at the meeting began discussing each school setup among themselves, Page cut them off.
“I don’t want to get a back-and-forth in the audience, because things generally go downhill from there,” she said.
“I thought we were having a nice conversation,” an audience member muttered from the seats.
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