An 11-member panel in Vermont has been tasked with proposing new school district boundaries as part of an effort to create fewer, more efficient districts.
Vermont Public reports that the School District Redistricting Task Force must produce up to three proposed maps for state lawmakers to consider when they reconvene in January.
Vermont now has 118 school districts organized into 51 supervisory unions. The smallest district has fewer than 200 students, and the largest just over 4,000.
Education reform legislation known as Act 73 calls for an overhaul of the system that would result in districts with between 4,000 to 8,000 students.
Redistricting will not be easy. Communities in Vermont have long guarded their local control, and people, particularly in rural areas, are anxious that larger districts will shutter their smaller schools.
The task force also will have to consider the state’s hilly geography, rural roads, and the deteriorating condition of many of its existing schools.
If the consolidation envisioned in Act 73 actually comes to fruition, the result would be “the biggest governance reform in 100-and-something years,” said State Rep. Rebecca Holcombe, a former Vermont secretary of education.
Legislators do not have to adopt one of the task force’s recommended configurations. They are free to tweak their recommendations or ignore them altogether.
