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Rural School Alliance urges Vermont House to expand statewide shared services, opposes forced mergers
Summary
Representatives of the Rural School Community Alliance told the House Education Committee Feb. 13 that cooperative education service areas (BOCES/CSAs) can cut costs, preserve local school governance, and that forced statewide mergers recommended under Act 73 lack public backing; they offered data and implementation steps for scaling CSAs statewide.
Cheryl Charles, chair of the Westminster School Board and the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, and Jeannie Albert, chair of the Lincoln Town School District board, told the Vermont House Education Committee on Feb. 13 that statewide cooperative education service areas (BOCES/CSAs) should be the first step in implementing Act 73 rather than imposing forced district mergers.
Charles said the Rural School Community Alliance (RSCA), formed about a year earlier and representing more than 100 towns, supports mandatory participation in a shared-services structure that would not dissolve local school boards but would assign each district and supervisory union to a CSA so districts can select services that best meet local needs. "We don't believe that forced mergers are effective," Charles said during her testimony.
The witnesses cited the 2024…
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