Voices

A walk through the WSESD vote

BRATTLEBORO — Hey, folks!

There is a school district election coming up on Tuesday, Nov. 19, and if you haven't been closely following the progress of our new multi-town school board you may be wondering what that is all about.

There are no candidates being elected at this time - the voting is purely to allow residents of Brattleboro, Putney, Guilford, and Dummerston more input into how the school district operates.

Please go and vote - this is our chance to form our school district in a way that better suits our communities! Early voting has already begun 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays in the Town Clerk's office, and polls will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 19 at the Municipal Center.

There are four questions to vote on - all amendments to the language in the state-imposed merger of these five districts' articles of agreement. It's basically like the Constitution, but for the school board.

Our current articles were boilerplate language by the state Board of Education; these amendments have been developed by our school board members in order to more accurately reflect the needs of our local WSESD school district.

Question 1: Representation - The first question is about whether voters would like to approve a change to the number of members on the school board. The state-imposed articles of agreement mandated two school-board members from each town, and the amendment offered in question 1 would add two additional members from Brattleboro to reflect its much-larger population and number of students in the district.

A Yes vote would approve two more members for Brattleboro, for a total of four, and maintain the two current seats each for Guilford, Putney, and Dummerston.

Question 2: Grade configuration - This question is about what grades will be offered at each school and how that can or cannot be changed. Currently, Putney and Dummerston offer pre-kindergarten through grade eight in their schools, while Brattleboro and Guilford offer pre-kindergarten through grade six and send students in grades seven and eight to Brattleboro Area Middle School.

The amendment seeks to preserve the current grade configurations for at least three years. Thereafter, it would, if approved, put in place a mandatory process by which the district would study the impact of any changes to grade configurations and then would need the approval of voters in each of the affected towns to enact any changes.

Question 3: School closures - This question is about how the district can and cannot close schools. Similar to the amendment in Question 2, this amendment would prevent any schools from being closed for at least the next five years.

After that, if the district is considering closing a school, it would have to study the impact of that closure in affected towns.

A yes vote would make this the mandatory process, meaning that no school could be closed without that town's approval.

Question 4: Leadership councils - This question is about an amendment to the structure of the school district governance. In order to give the school communities of each of the 10 schools in the district a voice in identifying and addressing issues of importance and budget priorities at their school, this amendment would create School Leadership Councils comprised of administrators, teachers, parents, community members, and possibly students at each school.

The councils would serve an advisory role to the school board, with an elected board member attending each meeting to allow a pathway for local work and input from each school.

A yes vote would create these councils in an official capacity.

(Currently, leadership councils are being organized at each school but this amendment would make them mandatory rather than at the will of the school board.)

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