MONTPELIER — The Vermont State Board of Education gave its official blessing Wednesday to the continued educational marriage of Grafton and Athens.
The state board weighed in on the issue because Westminster is in the process of leaving the Windham Northeast Unified Union Elementary District, a controversial creature of Act 46.
Earlier this year, Westminster voted to leave the two-year-old union school district, and at Town Meeting Grafton and Athens approved the move as well, setting the stage for the state board to act.
The state Board of Education had forced the three towns to merge the administration of their schools two years ago in the face of intense opposition. A little-known provision of state education law allowed Westminster, and other towns, to dissolve their shot-gun educational marriages. In fact, tiny Athens was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Act 46, with Grafton and Westminster also signed on.
Jack Bryar, a school director from Grafton and the chairman of the Windham Northeast Unified Union Elementary School Board, told the state board that Grafton and Athens had been operating as a unified school long before Act 46.
It is in the “best interests” of the state of Vermont for the educational partnership to continue, Bryar said. “We are one,” he said, nothing the two towns collaborate on the school, the local FAST Squad, and the Grafton Library.
The parting with Westminster is amicable, he said.
Westminster leaving the small two-school and three-town union elementary district will have no effect on the education for the students at the Grafton School, he said. “It has no meaningful impact,” he told members of the state board.
With one vote in opposition, the state board approved the continued operation of the small union school district.
Westminster is in the process of re-establishing its independent school district, which is likely to go into effect in July 2022. Election of three Westminster school district board members is expected next month, with another election expected in September to bring the board to the full, pre-Act 46, five-member board.
After the Grafton-Athens matter was resolved, the board also tackled another school that wants to leave its Act 46 school district, the town of Ripton in Addison County.
Unlike last month, the state board had nothing but praise for the Ripton plan, and thanked the Ripton committee for its work providing documentation to support its request.
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State Education Board blesses Grafton-Athens continued 'marriage' - Brattleboro Reformer
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