CALAIS, Vt. (WCAX) – Two central Vermont elementary schools are once again facing closure as the Washington Central Unified Union School District takes on education restructuring challenges head-on.
It’s storytime at Calais Elementary School, a school whose future is in doubt.
“We want to have equitable, consistent, and sustainable instruction for all of our students, and it’s hard in the reality that we are now also as a state,” said Washington Central Unified Union School District Board Chair Flor Diaz-Smith.
The board will vote on Wednesday whether to put Calais Elementary School and the Doty Memorial School in Worcester on the chopping block.
Under the board’s budget draft, the district would consolidate from five elementary schools to three in hopes of easing the burden on taxpayers.
But that’s creating tension among residents. “These schools are the hearts of our communities, and we care a lot about our students, and the students have the chance to be a part of a real special community situation when they live in these little rural communities,” said Cynthia Gardner-Morse of Calais. She says she wouldn’t be opposed to closing schools, but she hasn’t heard enough evidence that these closures will ease the financial burden. “We’ve asked the school board repeatedly for these answers.”
WCUUSD Superintendent Steven Dellinger-Pate says this year the district saw a decline of 170 students, resulting in a $2.7 million decrease in funding from the state. He says even if the two schools are closed, more decisions about programs will have to be made for the school budget to be affordable.
“We want those kids to have all the opportunities that every other kid should have as they’re going to school, and if that means we have to create new school communities to make that happen. We hope that they’ll join us,” Dellinger-Pate said.
It’s the kind of difficult choice small communities across Vermont will face if the state moves forward with the reforms set out in Act 73.
“I think everyone has different ways that they are looking at it. I think regardless, there’s a sense of worry for loss, in that there would be the loss of this school community,” said Calais Elementary Principal Jarrod Weiss.
School board members will have to approve a plan to close Doty and Calais on Wednesday to give voters in the area enough time to decide for themselves if they want to close those schools, ahead of school budgets going to voters on Town Meeting Day. The meeting starts at 6:15 at U-32.
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