Last fall, voters from 18 Washington County towns resoundingly rejected a $149 million bond proposal for a new Central Vermont Career Center, 5751 to 3873, or 60% to 40%.
The CVCC board is back with a new proposal for a $54.9 million bond that uses the existing facilities at Spaulding High School as well as a new proposed satellite campus at U-32.
It’s a better plan than last year’s plan, and more affordable and doubles the enrollment capacity of the career/technical center. That’s great news.
Here’s what’s not so great about this plan, which comes before voters in the general election in November.
It’s not going to be easy or logical to vote this year. Because of the timing of the board deciding to bring the vote this fall, it was too late to have the career center bond vote included as part of the packet of ballots that voters received from the Vermont Secretary of State.
That means that people who want to vote on the CVCC bond have to vote in person on November 10 at their town polling place – or call their town clerk and have the ballot mailed to them. Some folks will have already contacted their town clerks to have all or some 2026 ballots mailed to them.
On its face, that’s not super complicated but it’s adding another step to a process that could have been (and should be) seamless.
But more distressing is the fact that it is going to give election agitators, naysayers and skeptics- as well as proponents and opponents of the bond - fodder to raise a stink. If, because of this extra layer of voting complication, the bond fails by an extraordinarily small number, a tiny percentage of voters in the 18 district towns will have had a $54.9 million bond rejected by a few votes. Ditto if it passes under similar circumstances; opponents can decry having a few people foist the debt on all of us.
That opens the door for agitators to claim foul and impugn our election processes which is the absolute last thing we need right now in our state or our nation.
This is a very important bond vote. We need more and better career paths for Vermont students. A complicated vote doesn’t help get this done.
