In support of Monique Priestly for the Vermont Senate
I’m a retired teacher and a seventh-generation Vermonter living in Strafford and I’m writing to support Monique Priestley for the Orange County senate seat.
Rural schools like Strafford’s Newton School are under real pressure and the conversation in Montpelier too often jumps straight to closing them. But one of the biggest costs school boards face, health insurance for school employees, is bargained statewide and is outside any local board’s control. Premiums are rising again this year. Closing a community school doesn’t change that. Addressing the cost does.
I’ve heard it said that healthcare is in better shape than people think and that the Legislature has already made a lot of changes. Some changes have been made and I’m glad. But I’d invite anyone who feels settled about it to sit in on a school budget meeting, where a board has to pay a bill it didn’t set and can’t negotiate.
What I value most in Monique is that she asks before she decides. Over the past two legislative sessions, she has reached out to understand how bills will actually land in small schools like ours. That same instinct shapes her view on mergers: She supports smart, voluntary ones where towns want them, and she trusts communities to make that call for themselves. She grew up in rural Vermont, left, and came back, as I did, because this is where she wants to build a life. That tells me she understands what’s at stake here.