EAST MONTPELIER — Nine months from now, members of the Washington Central School Board hope to have settled on a plan to reconfigure — or not — their six-school district, and have left the door open to exploring a possible merger with the Montpelier Roxbury Public School District.
The latter wrinkle surfaced near the end of a Wednesday night meeting during which the board settled on a framework and a time frame for assessing its current educational structure. That structure, which long predates a state-imposed merger in 2018, includes pre-K-6 schools in Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester all feeding U-32 Middle & High School.
Since 2019, the six once-autonomous schools have been the responsibility of a single school board in a five-town district where enrollment has been steadily dropping, cost per-pupil has been on the rise, and the last of pandemic-era federal funding is being spent.
None of that is good news for a board that acknowledged those challenges earlier this year before going all-in on a budget some members feared would test taxpayers’ tolerance, but all agreed would buy time for a thoughtful system-wide analysis.
In making that decision, the board balked at a cost-saving administrative proposal that would have altered where some students showed up for school when classes resume next week.
Proposed in response to a board directive to limit the tax impact of the since-approved budget, the proposal would have shifted two small classes — preschool and sixth grade — from Doty Memorial School in Worcester to Rumney Memorial School in neighboring Middlesex.
With a strategic planning process underway, board members agreed Wednesday night it was time they deliver on a months-old promise to evaluate how best to meet the educational needs of the shrinking number of students in the pre-K-12 district.
No decisions have been made, no proposals are on the table, and Superintendent Meagan Roy said implementing any structural changes wouldn’t be an overnight exercise. It’s one, she noted, that hasn’t yet started.
“Really, the goal is to leave tonight with a picture of how we’re approaching the work,” said Roy, who stressed the importance of a “board-led” process — one where administrators would be a resource, enlisting the assistance of a consultant was optional, and community engagement would be critical.
Roy predicted the latter won’t be an issue when the conversation shifts to possible options for altering the structure of some, and conceivably all, of the district’s schools.
The aborted proposal to move a small number of students in two grade levels from Doty to Rumney is one example of the former, while pulling sixth-graders out of all five elementary schools and sending them to join the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders at U-32 is an example of the latter.
Board members agreed an expanded version of its finance committee could handle the first phase of the work — compiling an in-depth analysis of everything from enrollment trends, student outcomes and opportunities to information about facilities and cost considerations.
The finance committee, which will be expanded to include representatives of all five district towns, will start its work next month and will deliver a report and some preliminary options to the full board at its meeting in early December.
The study will be the subject of board discussion at public meetings in January and February, and there will be a concerted effort to solicit community feedback in the ensuing months before a decision is made in June.
School Director Kari Bradley said a decision next summer would set the stage for the ensuing budget cycle — the first that could reflect structural changes the board approves.
Roy said the scale of those changes, if any, could dictate whether it is a one-year adjustment, or one that would be phased in over time.
“The implementation depends on what you choose,” she said, noting a consultant-led strategic planning process launched earlier this year is honing in on a vision and core beliefs for the district that will assist the board in evaluating various options.
None of that discussion contemplated thinking beyond Washington Central’s well-established boundaries, but as the meeting was nearing an end, that possibility was added to the mix.
Last month’s flooding in Montpelier damaged Montpelier High School, prompting some to question whether it should move and rekindling dormant interest in exploring a merger with the district whose high school — U-32 — is just across the city line in East Montpelier.
A conversation, started on social media and since spilled into the community, surfaced during last week’s meeting of the Montpelier Roxbury School Board and again when the Washington Central board met Wednesday night.
Though there have been no formal overtures, and a merger would require a much longer and more involved conversation, Roy said the concept could easily be incorporated into the pending study.
“We are studying configuration options,” she said. “One of the things that we could study is the concept of a broader consolidation.”
Chair Flor Diaz-Smith agreed, noting she had heard “informally” the Montpelier Roxbury board hasn’t ruled out the idea. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they reached out to us,” she said.
If and when that happens, Diaz-Smith said board members would be informed and there would be a public discussion of how to proceed.
