As we head into the first week of school, we want to give our district’s communities an update on what we know and what we don’t know about the future of our schools, in light of the recently passed Act 73, Governor Phil Scott’s education reform bill.
The work of assessing the district’s school buildings by TruexCullins is complete, and we will get cost estimates for repairs and upgrades in late September. While we are excited that the assessment is finished and that we will soon have a clear, current picture of the challenges facing our seven school campuses, we are also aware of the angst this stirs up in our communities where folks are worrying that their school might be closed.
Since the passing of Act 73, the state has made big claims about how they plan to save money. What will it mean for the HUUSD? This is almost entirely up in the air. But we want to remind everyone that neither the district nor the state can close schools willy-nilly. The schools we have cannot accommodate rapid changes in population without massive construction costs, which undercuts the cost-savings Act 73 promises, and is logistically more than challenging.
Frankly, the school board finds itself between a rock and a hard place and maybe a brick wall. We don’t want to close schools in our vibrant communities. The Governor and the Legislature are working on plans to create new districts that could result in decisions to close schools. But nothing has been decided, and the timeline for these decisions is unknown.
To put it bluntly, as a board we have no idea what’s coming down the pike for ours or any districts in Vermont. We just have to wait and see while the initial attempts are made by the state’s redistricting task force to redraw new larger districts.
The logistical and financial issues we face are many. One thing we do know is that we will use the information we get from Truex to thoughtfully and prudently get our schools in proper working order, while we all wait to hear how our district might change in the future.
Woods, Warren, is the chair of the HUUSD board
Senning, Duxbury, is the vice chair of the HUUSD board
