Stand
April 17, 2025
This is a small musical interlude. As we all know, music is very subjective. What you like and what someone else likes can be quite different. As they say, "your mileage may vary". Watch & Listen...
It Happened in Vermont
April 17, 2025
Yesterday, United States Representative Becca Balint of Vermont was interviewed on Democracy Now. The topic; Homeland Security masked men arrest student in Colchester, VT. Watch...
TODAY: Public Education; Clear Statements & Testimony - Backed by 78 towns Across VT
April 3, 2025
Midday today, Thursday April 3rd. Testimony was given to the House Ways & Means Committee (they deal with all types of financial matters for the state) by 2 “on the ground” experienced leaders in public education.
Tons of attention has been drawn to education matters due to the proposal from Governor Scott and his controversial Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders. For more on Saunders and this matter.
There were a number of people offering testimony today. Among them were Jeanne Albert and Ryan Heraty.
Jeanne Albert is the Chair of the Lincoln School District Board and a retired Professor of Mathematics from Middlebury College. Lincoln is located about 15 miles from Middlebury, VT. Click here to jump directly to her testimony.
Testifying next was Ryan Heraty who is the Superintendent of Lamoille South Supervisory Union (located about 10 miles north of Stowe, VT). Click here to jump directly to his testimony.
If you have a point of view on this matter or an opinion; this is a tremendous opportunity to say your piece. The email addresses for the your state senators and representatives are below.
Keep this in mind. Particularly for rural schools, towns, and villages (that's most of Vermont) -- where go the schools, so go the towns. In other words; If the schools close, the towns are going to struggle for their existence. Think about it. What conclusion do you come to?
The whole movement to take education control away from local towns and put it in the hands of the governor is usually credited to Governor Phil Scott and his newly appointed and controversial Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders (formerly of Florida). So you may want to look in that direction.
The video below is the Vermont House Ways & Means Committee in a meeting today (4/3/2025).
The video starts at the point where the indicated person begins speaking. If you want to watch the entire meeting you can start the video at the beginning if you like. Recordings of this committee can be found at the following link House Ways & Means Live-stream and Recordings.
You can find the email addresses for your state senators and representatives by going to this link and searching by your town name. https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/search/2026
TODAY: Montpelier House Education Cmte:
Make an Agreement. Break an Agreement
March 27, 2025
As of noon today, Thursday March 27th. The house education committee set the date when the state of Vermont will break their agreement made with towns around the state. The agreement is known as the Articles of Agreement. At the risk of over-simplifying; it has to do with your local schools and keeping them open or closing them. That's obviously a very big deal to most towns and villages within Vermont.
The video of today's action in Montpelier is below, but keep reading a bit more...
Today's action follows from yesterday's surprise news of a new section added to draft bill H.454 (designed to severely overhaul Vermont's education system) authorizing the state to cancel their previous agreement with towns.
As it's currently understood, the new language would void the current "articles of agreement". Those agreements were developed a few years ago under the state's Act 46 school consolidation effort.
The new language would give authority to school boards to close schools at their sole discretion. In practical terms that means: (a) No public input; (b) No voting. To be clear: that means the agreements reached a few years ago (around 2018 or so) would be thrown out!
To give you a little bit of context, the proposed school system restructuring plan wants to have ONLY 5 school districts. There's a little debate on the exact number but it's far FEWER than we currently have. To put a fine point on it...
Your voice, your influence in the schools under this proposed new system would have FAR LESS IMPACT than you have right now. Your voice has already been watered-down due to the state's Act 46 consolidation of a few years ago. So this new plan would reduce your thoughts and input about the schools to... what; essentially ZERO?
And with the new language put into the draft bill this morning (if it's eventually passed), you will have about 1 1/2 years before the state can essentially close down your school if they want to. And what will you be able to do about it, if you don't like that? NOTHIN'. Absolutely nothing!
If you have a point of view on this matter or an opinion; this is a tremendous opportunity to say your piece. The email addresses for the committee members (that you'll see in the video) are below.
Keep this in mind. Particularly for rural schools, towns, and villages (that's most of Vermont) -- where go the schools, so go the towns. In other words; If the schools close, the towns are going to struggle for their existence. Think about it. What conclusion do you come to?
The whole movement to take education control away from local towns and put it in the hands of the governor is usually credited to Governor Phil Scott and his newly appointed and controversial Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders (formerly of Florida). So you may want to look in that direction.
The video below is the Vermont House Education Committee in a meeting today (3/27/2025) in a discussion of when to cancel the agreement made with towns just a few years ago on the future of their schools.
The video starts at the point where this topic begins. If you want to watch the entire meeting you can start the video at the beginning if you like. Recordings of this committee can be found at the following link House Education Live-stream and Recordings.
You can find the email addresses for your state senators and representatives by going to this link and searching by your town name. https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/search/2026
You can also email your letter to the House Education Committee. Their email addresses are below.
School Board Authority to Close Your School
March 26, 2025
As of noon today. New language has been added at the last minute to draft bill H.454 (designed to severely overhaul Vermont's education system) and is under discussion at the time of this writing.
This is a day of testimony in Montpelier by a number of grass-roots organizations about the sweeping education overhaul plan proposed by Governor Scott and his newly appointed and controversial Secretary of Education, Zoie Saunders (formerly of Florida). For more on Saunders.
As it's currently understood, the new language would void the current "articles of agreement". Those agreements were developed a few years ago under the state's Act 46 school consolidation effort.
The new language would give authority to school boards to close schools. That means the agreements reached a few years ago around 2018 or so) would be thrown out!
To give you a little bit of context, the proposed school system restructuring plan wants to have ONLY 5 school districts. There's a little debate on the exact number but it's far FEWER than we currently have. To put a fine point on it...
Your voice, your influence in the schools under this proposed new system would have FAR LESS IMPACT than you have right now. Your voice has already been watered-down due to the state's Act 46 consolidation of a few years ago. So this new plan would reduce your thoughts and input about the schools to... what; essentially ZERO?
And with the new language put into the draft bill this morning, it's easy to get the idea that closing of schools (maybe lots of them) is high on the list for the folks who are driving this bill.
Keep this in mind. Particularly for rural schools, towns, and villages (that's most of Vermont) -- where go the schools, so go the towns. In other words; If the schools close, the towns are going to struggle for their existence. Think about it. What conclusion do you come to?
A link to the bill will be provided here as soon as available.
ALSO, you can watch government in action and local grass-roots organizations by going to YouTube and watching the live-streams or the recordings of them from earlier today (or previous days). Here's the link for the House Education Live-stream and Recordings.
You can find the email addresses for your state senators and representatives by going to this link and searching by your town name. https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/search/2026
You can also email your letter to the House Education Committee. Their email addresses are below.
Will You be Saying, "Why Can't Johnny Read?"
March 19, 2025
Don't you hate alarmist headlines? Agreed. But this isn't one of them.
If you haven't noticed all the reporting about the governor's proposed plan to make incredibly sweeping changes to public education in all of Vermont - let's get you up to speed.
I'll provide you with a couple of sources so you can hear about this from different voices.
Barnard's own Carin Park (school board representative and Mountain Views School Board Director) last week published in the Barnard Listserv a very action oriented article. Click here for Carin's Article.
From that article, I think you'll understand there's a very real sense of urgency. Urgency; that's means the USS Vermont is taking on water. All Hands on Deck! (fyi, that statement is not about the submarine called the USS Vermont)
[Thinking out loud for a minute... If I didn't know better, I'd think the guv is taking a page from the Washington DC crowd and just blowing up the whole system and creating havoc. Huh, that would be bad! Kid's have to read, write, think, know some history, do a little math - right? Experimenting on kids' future is just wrong. I want to say, "for shame". But too late for that. Don't get angry - take action. - Ed.]
And here's the 2nd source...
This one is a video. It's kind of, "home-spun". If you get past that and just listen and understand what's being said, I'm sure you'll find some value there too.
Below is the video. If you want to jump to the part where he really picks up steam. Scroll along to 3 minutes 20 seconds.
Hello Barnard,
In a follow up from town meeting day I thought it would be helpful to send along some further information related to education reform efforts here in Vermont, and what you can do to help support our local schools.
In February, the Mountain Views School District, and the Barnard Selectboard, voted to join Rural School Community Alliance (RSCA). I have sent some information over the past weeks regarding this Alliance. As of this week 51 boards from across Vermont , school boards, select boards and other entities like parent teachers groups have voted to join the alliance. An additional 24 boards have votes scheduled in March. That so many boards have stepped up so quickly is significant. It is an indication of the urgency and concern related to our community public schools and their future.
The work of the Alliance is to advocate in the statehouse in support of rural schools and local school boards. We feel schools and their boards are essential elements in a strong public education system. We feel public education will be diminished when school boards are eliminated and schools are closed.
We all care about affordability and know that change needs to happen. However, RSCA does not think closing thriving public schools and eradicating local control is the answer, and we detail other suggestions regarding moderating spending and adjusting the system as a whole to be more cost effective. We understand that unsustainable schools with severe declining enrollment may need to close but feel communities faced with such circumstances need support rather than to be abandoned.
RSCA has retained a lobbyist to help navigate the statehouse so our voices can be heard and our views can be represented in legislation being passed. This is a difficult task. For Barnard Academy and Woodstock MS/HS and other schools to survive we will need to thread a needle with a tiny hole and a fine thread. The targets being discussed in relation to the Governor's proposal, called “ efficiency thresholds,” are modelled after centralized elementary schools of 450 students, and high schools of 600+, and are governed by only 5 state-wide school district boards.
How can you help? RSCA is a grassroots organization built from scratch since January powered by many volunteers.
1. Check out the RSCA website: https://vtruralschools.org/ . On the website you can read more about the Alliance and the policy proposals we support. You can also join as an individual and get updates on what is going on. Additionally you can donate to support this work. While we are volunteers, the professional support of a lobbyist comes at a price. We are working to raise $40,000 to support this work. Any donation you make will be appreciated and put to good use. You can donate directly from the website or send a check by mail.
2. Make your voice heard: The legislature is asking Vermonters to complete a survey called "Your Voice on Vermont's Public Education Future," to help shape the policies and decisions they make in the State House. Complete the survey at this link, due Friday, March 14.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekaIn7kWtYfaQcY-3cOXzrhfn19A6LqeSfuw4oBElabPtVdQ/viewform
3. Write to legislators. Consider using the template pasted below and/or revise to reflect your views on education reform. The more we speak up about our values and priorities, the more they may be reflected in legislation.
Many thanks for your support of the school budget on town meeting day and for your support of our school in the future as a key ingredient to a thriving community.
Best,
Carin Park
Mountain Views School Board Director
LETTER TEMPLATE:
Dear
Governor Scott has presented a radical plan to reduce the costs of Vermont’s public schools. Components of the proposed plan will completely overhaul our public education system without due consideration for Vermont’s unique rural landscape and the role our schools play in our communities. Any reform must consider the adverse impacts on rural children, elementary schools and communities, and must ensure actual savings for taxpayers.
Our public schools are under terrific pressure. They have endured years of change and upheaval. Students are struggling and teachers are leaving the profession. Is now the time for unproven reforms and a major overhaul of our schools? We understand the need to address the rising cost of education while avoiding adverse impacts on our children and communities. And we must ensure actual savings for taxpayers.
I believe Vermont needs thoughtful, community-driven reforms that strengthen rather than dismantle our public education system. Instead of pursuing a one-size-fits-all approach, please come up with alternative solutions that support Vermont’s diverse educational landscape:
• Keep elementary school students close to home. Support elementary schools as community hubs that enhance both early learning and economic development.
•Encourage regional collaboration for secondary schools by streamlining upper grade education delivery, including tech schools, while maintaining flexibility for local needs. Regional conversations allow schools to complement each other in terms of offerings.
•Remove costs from the Education Fund that are the result of political rather than educational needs. Skyrocketing health care, student mental health services, and teacher pension costs should not be paid from the property tax.
•Support local school boards working in collaboration as supervisory unions.
•Act now to smooth funding cliffs in the property tax system.
•Vermont needs balanced, research-backed solutions that truly benefit Vermont students, families, taxpayers and communities. Closing community elementary schools and dismantling local governance is not the answer.
Thank you for considering these ideas
Sincerely
For your email subject line, a good choice would be: School Governance
You can find the email addresses for your state senators and representatives by going to this link and searching by your town name. https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/search/2026
You can also email your letter to the House Education Committee. Their email addresses are below.
High School Building -
New Options from District
June 18, 2024
The school district presented on June 3rd a few options for the renovation or replacement of the existing middle and high school buildings. Below is a brief summary of the costs of the options.
Details of the various plans were described during the school board meeting and can be seen on the video provided by the school district. Also the meeting was reported in the June 6th edition of the Vermont Standard (online link to article not available at time of publication).
Original Plan. The original plan to replace both the middle and high school buildings was priced at ($99 million in March 2024). That proposal was voted down by the public. Today that proposal has a cost of $105 million (5% more due to 1 year change of start date – if that plan were to be selected).
Modified Original Plan. The original plan was adjusted by reducing the size or some of the features of portions of the building. That version of the plan resulted in a price tag of $100 million.
Renovate Plan. Another plan based on renovating the existing middle and high school is quoted at $101 million - $105 million (depending on options).
Hybrid Plan. A hybrid plan based on replacing the high school portion and renovating only the interior space of the middle school comes in at $92 million.
Below is a simple graph showing the costs of the various options.
September 18, 2019
EMC Design Review
School Buildings -
A Conversation with the Inner Skeptic
June 14, 2024
With all the discussion and questions a few months ago about the high school building and again a week or two ago; a bit of curiosity developed.
What’s happening with school buildings in other places? Not just in the next county but elsewhere in the US and other countries. It seems like an interesting question. It also seems like a big job to find out about that, doesn’t it?
Being short on time, this investigation had to be a small job. In fact, this is not so much an investigation. It's just a small effort. The point is to get a sense of what it’s like to develop a school building in other places.
There is one thing that could be said, even before starting this. Whatever is learned, will certainly have many parts that do not apply to our local set of circumstances. There is NO doubt of that. And on the other hand…
The schools built by others, whether located here, there, or elsewhere do have quite a few similarities. They have the environmental amenities (AC, heating, ventilation, sanitation, lighting). They are built to last a reasonable time and to accommodate a student population appropriate to the local needs, but not absurdly small nor overly large.
With those thoughts in mind. Would it be reasonable to say that the schools' circumstances though not perfectly aligned would be similar enough that we may learn a few significant things?
Overhearing the thoughts of the Inner Skeptic (everyone has one, right?) - “well, maybe, you might possibly learn something, argh”. Okay Inner Skeptic, that’s close enough, let’s run with it.
Online articles and data show a fair amount of information on school construction costs. After 30 minutes of weeding through the material, a couple of nuggets were discovered.
One reference (linked below) shows the average school building cost in 2021 (3 years ago). The costs are given for various cities (not rural locations) around the world. The chart (below) shows the cost per square meter. Not square foot as commonly discussed. We can easily correct for that by dividing by 10 to turn that number into dollars per square foot.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/758120/global-school-building-costs-in-cities/
Taking the example of a school in New York in 2021. The average cost is $485 per square foot.
For comparison, the cost mentioned by the school district’s finance director during the meeting in February of this year is approximately $627 per square foot - Barnard high school info meeting Feb '24 - See VIDEO at 1 hour 59 min.
The graph below has nothing to do with hockey. But the shape of the graph unfortunately does looks similar to a hockey stick. The jagged line indicates the rising cost of constructing school buildings. It rises slowly from 2005 to about 2021 then rockets upward after that.
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/PCU236222236222
The graph is called the Producer Price Index. It’s maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the label at the top indicates, it shows the average for school construction costs from 2005 to 2024. The sharp increase started in 2021. The cause of the increase is generally given to the effects of COVID-19. Labor shortages and material shortages.
After 1 hour of online digging, 2 ideas came to the surface. Have a look below, come to your own conclusions about the 2 particular ideas. But there’s more to this exercise than just that.
The bigger point is there may be more worthwhile ideas waiting to be found. But for the moment, have a look at the findings so far.
Modular home construction has been around for years. NOW, there’s modular school construction. Savings of 25% - 35% are claimed in the article referenced below. In cases where a fully modular building is not the right answer, there is a combination approach of modular and conventional construction. The article referenced was produced by a manufacturer of modular school buildings. But it shows projects that have actually been constructed. This idea may have some concepts worth considering. https://www.americanmodular.com/modular-school-construction-costs/
Bundle multiple school construction projects and save money based on “volume” pricing. The article referred to a Maryland school system. For Vermont, this may be an idea appropriate at the state level. https://www.governing.com/finance/prince-georges-county-saves-big-by-bundling-school-construction
This short article shows 2 things. One known. One (or maybe a few) that are new.
Imagine what might happen with a few more motivated folks and a bit of time.
“Alright, alright. You made your point. Those ideas; they were okay. I’ll dig around a little more. If some smart ideas do the job AND save me bucks - I’m in…”
September 18, 2019
EMC Design Review
COMMENTARY
A Public Education
Vermonters Support and Value
Margaret Maclean
June 11, 2024
Over the past 14 years Vermont has enacted three sweeping school district consolidation laws. The overarching goals of Act 153, Act 156, and Act 46 were to be achieved “at a cost that parents, voters and taxpayers value.” Are consolidated districts delivering on this promise?
A big picture look says no. Consolidation has not saved taxpayer dollars and has eroded Vermonter’s support for public education.
An examination of state per pupil spending data from 2018 compared to 2024 shows (see chart below) that Act 46 consolidated districts have not delivered in terms of cost savings. In this time the percentage of consolidated districts doubled, and costs continued to increase. Today consolidated districts cost more per pupil PK-12 than single-town school districts.
Further, consolidation has eroded public confidence and engagement. At town meeting in March 2024 school budgets in town school districts passed at more than twice the rate of those in consolidated districts— 83% vs. 38%.
No evaluation of consolidation has taken place. The Agency of Education was required to develop reports on Act 46, but the 2020 and 2021 reports have yet to materialize. We cannot afford to compound mistakes or overlook successes by moving forward without a comprehensive analysis. A moratorium on additional consolidation should be in place until a full independent evaluation is completed.
Education spending in Vermont needs to be addressed. But solutions in Montpelier are scarce, apart from calls to double down and “right size” the education system with additional consolidation. Higher per pupil spending and failed budgets in consolidated districts raise legitimate questions about this strategy. We need to take stock.
The legislature has developed a Commission to focus on the Future of Public Education in Vermont. The last time Vermont did this well was in 1968 with the Vermont Design for Education. This document was developed from the bottom up, engaging schools and communities throughout the state.
A new vision for the Future of Public Education should also put the public front and center. The commission needs to emphasize engagement, and incorporate elements that are crucial to the success of public education, including:
Vermont Design for Education 1968
Budget data compiled by VASBO.
Per pupil data compiled by the Agency of Education
September 18, 2019
EMC Design Review
Barnard Discusses...
Proposed $100 Million New Middle/High School Building
Since you're short on time, let's get to the main points. The school board is proposing a $100 million new middle/high school building (the bond amount would actually be $99 million). You as a property tax payer will pay for the vast majority of the cost. If the proposal is accepted by the voters of the school district on Tuesday, March 5th; your taxes will go up beginning with your tax payment in August of 2027.
The school district finance director provided to the public an Excel spreadsheet so you can estimate your tax increase. You can download it here. To make it easier if you don't have Microsoft Excel on your computer; you can get an estimate right on this website - click here.
The proposed school building was presented to the residents of Barnard on Feb 15th. A video recording (click here) was made of the presentation as well as a lot of questions from the public; both in-person and online. To save you some time, there is a list (right below the video) of questions or comments from the public. Click on one of the questions and you'll jump to the part of the video where that is discussed.
Remember to VOTE on Tuesday, March 5th; "Your Vote is Your Voice".
There was a gathering of people from Barnard on February 15th to hear from 2 school board members and 2 school district administrators about a proposed new middle/high school. The building is intended to replace the existing middle/high school building.
The meeting was well attended both in-person and online. The format of the presentation allowed for questions and comments throughout. The attendees took full advantage to voice their thoughts about the proposed $100 million building project (the bond amount would actually be for $99 million).
Quite naturally, many of the questions touched on: (a) justification of the need for a new building; (b) the size and configuration of the proposed building, and; (c) the cost and cost reductions.
A vote will happen on town meeting day, Tuesday, March 5th in all towns that make up the Mountain Views Supervisory Union (formerly, Windsor Central Supervisory Union; WCSU).
There has been a lot of talk in the media and the public in recent weeks about property taxes and the potential tax surge. The vote on this project is not directly related to the possible tax increase that you'll see in your mailbox this summer.
If this project is approved, you would see the tax increase in 2027. The school district's finance director provided an Excel spreadsheet that you can download (here) and estimate the tax impact of the project on you. If you are not able to run that spreadsheet, a simplified tax estimator is included on this website (here); the answers it provides are based on results from the school finance director's spreadsheet.
You can watch the presentation and hear the questions from Barnard residents on the video below.
The finance director of the school district provided to the public a spreadsheet to estimate the tax impact of the proposed new school building. The spreadsheet can be downloaded from the school district site, here. The spreadsheet in its calculations uses a bond amount of $99 million. To use the spreadsheet, here's what you should know.
Your computer needs to have Microsoft Excel installed on it. You also need to know the basics of running Excel. If that's a bit too much for you to deal with, this website has taken the results of the finance director's spreadsheet and made it more convenient for you to get your tax estimate (for NON-income-sensitized homeowners).
NOTE: Income-sensitized homeowners will have an estimated tax that is LESS than shown in the Tax Estimator. To get the income-sensitized tax estimate, download the Excel spreadsheet from the finance director, here.
One thing you'll need is your recent property tax bill. You only need 1 number from it, the TOTAL TAXABLE VALUE. Look at the sample tax bill below and you'll easily see where that figure is located.
The estimated tax values (for NON-income-sensitized homeowners) are based on the results obtained from the spreadsheet provided by the district finance director. The spreadsheet shows some assumptions that are subject to change. Those assumptions are shown in the image below.
NOTE: Income-sensitized homeowners will have an estimated tax that is LESS than shown in the Tax Estimator. To get the income-sensitized tax estimate, download the Excel spreadsheet from the finance director, here.
