WILLIAMSVILLE — The Newfane School Board is supposed to have five members; after Town Meeting, we'll have just two. The current board has tried to recruit new candidates for the past year and a half but, so far, no one has stepped forward. And this is too bad.
For the past eight years, the Newfane School Board has accomplished a great deal, most notably forging a Joint School District with Brookline, which governs the highly successful NewBrook Elementary School.
The board operates by consensus, and it's done an excellent job creating budgets that pass. Most notable of all, however, is how magnificently and patiently board members explain the highly complex funding formulas mandated by the state. Every time I attend a school board hearing, I am in awe of the highly specialized knowledge these volunteer board members have amassed on our behalf. And I'm grateful.
I'm one of those people who believe that educating our collective children is perhaps our most important civic task. It's cost-effective: educated children have a better chance of becoming employed, tax-paying adults. It ensures democracy: literacy, critical thinking, and historical perspective make for informed citizens.
But I understand anyone's reluctance to serve.
As complex and difficult as it is to come up with a budget that supports the highest level of student learning at the fairest cost to the taxpayer, it's only one of five factors that determines the bottom line, and the only one over which there is any local control.
The other four factors that affect our education tax rate include the common level of appraisal (the adjustment made to local property values at the state level); the base education spending index (set by the legislature); the state education tax rate (also set by the legislature); and student enrollment (decreasing statewide).
All four of these factors are beyond the school board's control, so it's hardly any wonder that few people are willing to spend innumerable hours attending evening meetings to work so hard under such daunting constraints. Face it - most people inclined to serve on a school board are interested in education, not convoluted finance. No wonder so few want to serve.
According to VTDigger.org, Vermont has one school board member for every 57 students, the lowest ratio in the nation. With Vermont's low, statewide population, I'd be surprised if Newfane is the only town facing school board vacancies, and I question a system that requires so much human capital to determine such a small part of an overall equation.
There's got to be a better way.
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As Vermont lawmakers prepare to revise how we govern our schools, I would urge them to look beyond mere governance.
So much of our educational system is based on a long-gone agricultural economy. It's time to rethink education according to the 21st century, where few kids walk to school and fewer work on farms.
It's time to consider longer school days and a longer school year; it's essential to incorporate technology into pedagogy and to benefit from the distance learning that connectivity offers.
It's also time to stop pretending that every child comes from some idealized family where there's a breadwinning father and a bread-baking mom. At Leland and Gray Union High School, 48 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced meals, 19,000 of which have been served there since September.
Schools, in fact, deliver many social services already; they should be recognized as such - and used more.
Consolidating school districts could have many benefits, not least of all reducing the cost of administration through restructuring school governance. Consolidation does not have to mean the loss of local control. In fact, I can imagine a restructuring so thorough that our local schools would become vibrant community centers, in use from early morning until late at night, not just for the education of our children, but also as places for meetings, sports, community clubs and civic organizations.
This kind of transformation can only take place with both imagination and will. We need to think collectively, collaboratively, and creatively. We need to hear one another's ideas and dreams, and we need to figure out how to make them come true.
It's a tall order and, for it to serve us best, it needs to start in our hometowns, not in Montpelier.
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All big projects start with small steps. I urge everyone to attend Town Meeting on Tuesday. Introduce yourself to someone there you don't know. Learn about the issues. School yourself in local affairs.
We can create the change we want - if we're willing to make it happen.
And we can make it happen by engaging in civic discourse, by working together, and by serving in whatever capacity we can.