House Education hears superintendents' research-backed recommendations on district consolidation, school and class size

Chelsea Myers, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, told the House Education Committee on a January 2025 meeting day that research on district consolidation and school size is mixed and must be paired with implementation plans that account for local geography, facilities and staffing.

Myers said policymakers should “balance quality and efficiency” and recommended the Agency of Education work with districts toward district sizes of about 2,000 to 4,000 students, while setting minimum school-size thresholds and clearer staffing reporting. The presentation stressed that governance changes alone do not guarantee improved instructional quality and urged careful sequencing of governance, delivery and funding changes.

The recommendations respond to recent state proposals that would consolidate districts. Myers cited several research findings and state studies, including a Vermont prototypical district size of about 3,900 students from the Vermont Adequacy Study (the PICUS report), research finding potential diseconomies of scale above roughly 10,000–15,000 students, and a 2024 Education Commission of the States note that transition costs can offset consolidation savings.

Bill Kimball, superintendent of the Maple Run School District,…