We greet the proposal to centralize Mad River Valley elementary school students at the former Cabot Creamery headquarters off Airport Road in Waitsfield with an open mind.
We agree with school board chair Ashley Wood on its centrality. Its proximity to the Mad River Rec Fields is also a plus. It would make a nice campus for kids.
It’s a relatively new building (compared to our current elementary schools), which may mitigate some of the upfit costs. More on upfit in a minute.
Whether we like it or not, change is coming to how our elementary schools are structured. We can gnash our teeth over the years of failure (at the state level) to address any solution to the spiraling costs of healthcare for educators.
No one ever tried or advocated for merging these health care recipients with state employees’ health care program, creating economies of scale. No one really tried hard on a single-payer system since former Governor Peter Shumlin abandoned the idea.
We can weep and wail for federal and state failures to address systemic issues with how special education funds are distributed and defined.
Change is coming despite those failures. We have a window here, and we have a chance to control part of our own destiny. It makes sense to seize it when it comes to configuring our schools.
Let’s let this play out a little further. Let’s get real numbers on how much it would cost to upfit the Cabot building to serve as a 450-student school. Let’s understand what it means to go from four elementary school buildings and campuses to one in terms of staffing, administration, transportation, maintenance, upkeep, etc.
The right math will make this an easier sell. The wrong math, i.e., purchase price and upfit costs (and unseen costs) exceed current cost of operating four elementary schools, won’t fly.
We’re keeping an open mind and waiting to hear why this proposal makes sense for our communities, how it benefits students and educational outcomes and how it helps taxpayers. We recognize that absent structural changes to health care, special ed and Vermont’s education funding mechanism, our efforts will be futile.
