Saturday, May 03, 2014
News to Know MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
It was suggested that sending along information on how to make
your voice heard in the legislature might be helpful. I do hope you can
find time to read about Bill H-883 as it would effect everyone, whether or not
you have kids in school. It's scary to read "it was shown that merely the process of remaking the state’s
educational districts would cost tens of millions of dollars." I
personally think everything I've seen so far indicates there will be cost
shifting, for if you make larger school districts, not only is there the
initial cost to make all the changes, unless there are superintendents who are
sitting around with a lot of free time on their hands (I don't think there is),
they would need to hire additional people in order to take on more work. Having
not only local schools but local school boards is vital for quality education
and for our communities.
Below there is a bit of information I
found in Rep. Donahue's Legislative Update regarding this topic.
Bill H-883 has gone to the Senate but I did include the Rep.
contact info also and what information I could find from Rep. Donahue in regard
to why there were people who voted Yes.
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott phil.scott@state.vt.us
SENATE BY DISTRICT
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/legdir/districts.cfm?Body=S
Washington District (3)
Cummings, Ann acummings@leg.state.vt.us
Doyle, Bill wdoyle@leg.state.vt.us
Pollina, Anthony apollina@leg.state.vt.us; apollina@sover.net
REPRESENTATIVES BY DISTRICT
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/legdir/districts.cfm?Body=H
Washington-1 (2)
Donahue, Anne adonahue@leg.state.vt.us; counterp@tds.net
Lewis, Patti, plewis@leg.state.vt.us;
pattijlewis@myfairpoint.net
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In the Legislative Update that Rep. Anne Donahue sent out today, May 3, 2014 http://representativeannedonahue.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html,
she included information on the School Consolidation:
"School Consolidation
I think we need to move in the
direction of larger districts so that our students have access to more
opportunities and we gain from economies of scale and more consistent planning.
I was therefore tempted to support this bill to get that conversation going.
We have the smallest districts in the
country at 299 students per district. New
Hampshire Maine
However, this bill does not address the
fundamental problems of the dynamics of cost and of the property tax burden,
and I fear that if it passes (having “done something”) we will lose focus and
pressure on addressing these more critical underlying issues.
I voted no; the bill passed on a
relatively close 75-62 vote, and it is now up to the Senate to react in the
short time remaining this session."
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http://representativeannedonahue.blogspot.com/2014/04/april-5-2014-legislative-update.html April 5th, 2014
"New School Governance?
A pending House bill would create
much larger school districts, thereby reducing local control, to the extent
that any remains. A single school board with representation from all of the
towns would decide the district-wide budget.
The idea supports both economies of
scale and broader opportunities for students.
It would not be fully implemented
until 2020, with opportunities initially for towns to present voluntary
proposals for expanded districts. It is late in the year for such a major
change to get through both House and Senate, so perhaps it is only being
floated as a trial balloon.
Nonetheless, Rep. Patti Lewis and I
touched base with some of the Northfield Berlin
# posted by Corinne's blog of Berlin and area happenings @ 8:01 PM 
