Our board listened with great interest to Jill Stahl Tyler's 45-minute testimony arguing against delay of forced mergers. We would be derelict in our duty if we did not correct the record.
In her testimony, Tyler quoted teachers at Brattleboro Union High School who said, “Dummerston students are not as prepared as Oak Grove students [one of Brattleboro's elementary schools]” and attributed Brattleboro students' success to tutoring programs that other schools did not have. We disagree.
As Tyler mentioned, our Dummerston middle schoolers consistently are top scorers in both Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests. In 2017, Dummerston eighth graders were 93 percent proficient in English Language Arts and 87 percent proficient in Math, compared with state averages of 55 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
Superintendent Lyle Holiday said there are no reports from high school staff or administrators of Dummerston students not being academically prepared.