Montpelier
One of the state’s smaller school districts, with 400 students in one K-12 building, Blue Mountain Union includes the towns of Ryegate, Wells River and Groton. It has been operating as its own supervisory union, with a part-time superintendent, but the day after Town Meeting, Superintendent Emilie Knisley announced she was resigning to take an interim assignment at Orange East Supervisory Union. Blue Mountain’s business manager also is moving to Orange East. Both are to start in their new positions on July 1, leaving Blue Mountain without anyone running its central office at the start of the new fiscal year.
The Bradford, Vt.-based Orange East Supervisory Union is made up of five school districts and six schools: Oxbow Union High School, Bradford Elementary School, Newbury Elementary School, River Bend Career & Tech Center, Thetford Elementary School and Waits River Valley School in Corinth.
With Act 46, the school district consolidation law, entering its end game, the Agency of Education had declined to give the Blue Mountain union school board permission to begin a search for a new superintendent.
As a result, “Blue Mountain has no superintendent and no leadership. It needs leadership before July and we can’t wait for Act 46 decisions,” said Krista Huling, chairwoman of the state board, which has the authority to redraw supervisory union lines at any time. “The students need leadership, bills need to be paid.”
With voluntary school district mergers completed, the next phase of Act 46 calls for the state Agency of Education to present a draft school district map to the board on June 1. By the end of November, the state board will have a final plan for school governance across the state.
The state board has written to the Blue Mountain board asking where they wanted the district to be assigned, but the Blue Mountain board has been unable to come up with a way forward.
Angeline Alley, the Blue Mountain School Board chairwoman, acknowledged the School Board’s fiduciary responsibility to have trained staff in the business office by July. She told the state board that at the last board meeting she could not get a majority to agree to go with Orange East, because of wariness on the part of the board of being permanently tied to Orange East.
Alley said she told them they can fight that battle when the Act 46 map comes out, but they needed someone in the office on July 1 “to do the work and oversee. In my opinion, it makes more sense to go with Orange East.”
Towns from the Orange East and Blue Mountain unions had been on Act 46 study committees together, but Blue Mountain had withdrawn and Bruce Stevens, a member of the study committee, told the state board “there is historical animosity between the communities.”
Lucas Barrett, chairman of the Orange East board, said they would welcome Blue Mountain. The school boards would remain in place, but they would share services, reducing administration costs, he said. Both supervisory unions use the same accounting software and contract with the same vendors.
“A great one-time efficiency can be achieved by assigning Blue Mountain to Orange East,” Barrett said, adding the two districts also will be able to coordinate special education, curriculum and pre-kindergarten services.
State board member John Carroll suggested giving Blue Mountain more time to make its own decision.
But Alley, the Blue Mountain board chairwoman, said she didn’t think they would be able to coalesce in a month’s time.
“I don’t think there will be much movement on anybody going either way,” she said.
The majority of the state board voted to assign Blue Mountain to Orange East for the time being. Board member Mark Perrin sent Blue Mountain’s board members home with a message, “It’s really important that the community understand this is not an Act 46 piece. This is a lack of leadership piece. We have to look out for the students and, to be quite frank, the professionals.”