WOODSTOCK — The Mountain Views Supervisory District is not going to let go of state construction aid for a planned $112 million middle and high school without a fight.
That’s the message, in a nutshell, of a letter the district’s board chair, Keri Bristow, sent to state Education Secretary Zoie Saunders on Friday.
“Rather than delaying one of Vermont’s most thoroughly planned school construction projects, we believe there is a lawful approach that provides a true win for the State, the Agency, and our community,” Bristow wrote.
In March, voters in the seven-town Mountain View district approved a replacement for Woodstock Union Middle and High School. The bond issue vote was contingent on funding 25% of the total cost of the project from federal, state and private sources. The district has raised more than $5 million in private donations toward the project.
Vermont Agency of Education officials have so far declined to commit to funding the project, saying that state education reform laws passed this year and last require agency officials to establish a process for the State Aid for School Construction Program. Though Mountain Views officials met with the state agency in late May, subsequent meetings were postponed, and then canceled.
In response to Bristow’s letter, an AOE spokesperson declined to respond in detail to the Valley News.
“Rather than litigate this issue in the press, the Agency of Education plans to respond directly to the Mountain Views Supervisory Union,” Toren Ballard, director of policy and communications for the AOE, said in a message Monday.
Recent state laws “clearly require the Agency of Education to adopt rules for scoring an application for construction aid before the Agency of Education can approve an application for construction aid. Under Act 170, the deadline for rulemaking is March 1, 2028.”
Further, Ballard wrote, “Until rules are adopted through a transparent public process in accordance with Vermont’s Administrative Procedure Act, the Agency is not authorized to approve an application for construction aid. It would be unlawful and irresponsible to provide any school district, including the Mountain Views Supervisory Union, with special treatment by fast-tracking an application for construction aid before rules are adopted.”
The school district argues that it is not seeking to subvert the state’s rulemaking process or looking for “special treatment.”
Rather, the district’s 70-year-old high school is crumbling, voters have approved a new one, and the state, which is creating a process to provide school building aid after suspending it in 2007, can get on board without violating either the letter or the spirit of the education reform laws, Bristow wrote.
“We believe that the Agency of Education can grant final approval that fully protects the Agency’s legal responsibilities while advancing the Governor’s and Legislature’s shared goals of improving affordability, encouraging regionalization, protecting taxpayers, and ensuring safe learning environments,” Bristow wrote.
Though rebuffed by the AOE, Mountain Views officials — who represent the towns of Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading and Woodstock — have no intention of backing off, and plan to keep pressure on both the agency and the administration of Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican and the main driver of the state’s ongoing education reform plans.
“The AOE’s narrow interpretation of Act 170 on School Construction Aid reflects the Governor’s intent to create mega districts and consolidate schools,” Mountain Views Superintendent Sherry Sousa said in an email yesterday.
The district still has options, Sousa said. Officials plan to ramp up their public activism “to increase understanding of the costs we and others face from a government agency that has simply failed to do its job.”
Their efforts extend to trying to persuade Gov. Scott, Sousa said.
The district’s campaign includes giving a tour Wednesday morning to Aly Richards, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor. Richards, a native of Newbury, Vt., and a graduate of Oxbow High School in Bradford, was CEO of Let’s Grow Kids, a nonprofit that advocated for better childcare in Vermont.
“We view this visit as another important means of informing the public how desperate our WUHSMS situation is for our students, teachers, and communities,” Sousa said. “While it appears that AOE and some key Vermont elected officials prefer that we place our students in (temporary classrooms), we need to avoid the $1 million annual price tag of that decision and request that AOE just say ‘yes’ to our request for final approval.”
