Our Town Schools

Are we about to lose our schools?

•     Act 73 proposes to consolidate our schools into far fewer districts.

•     Did our own recent merger result in lower costs or better educational opportunities?

How about a fresh look at our school governance?  

Let’s ask our town Select Boards to help.

For generations in Vermont, education was rooted in our towns. School boards were accountable to local voters, and decisions reflected the needs of each community.

We consolidated our districts with the promise of stronger educational opportunity, greater efficiency, and long-term sustainability. Those were good-faith goals.

But today, enrollment is down. Costs are up. Academic outcomes have not improved as we hoped.

At the same time, Essex and Essex Junction are now separate municipalities. Westford faces uncertainty about the future of its K–8 school. Representation has shifted. Yet governance remains centralized.

This is not about blaming teachers or attacking public education. It is about keeping the schools we built in our community within our local control.

And now the State is positioning itself for even greater consolidation — and the potential loss of local tuitioning authority in towns where it still exists.

It is reasonable to ask:

• Is this structure delivering what was promised?...

• And does it still reflect the voice of our communities?

I am introducing a petition, calling for a transparent, data-driven review of our school governance, with the goal of restoring meaningful local authority.  You can find this petition, online, at ourTownSchools.org.

This is not a radical proposal. This is Vermont.

If you believe it is time to review our governance structure and ensure our schools are accountable to our towns, I invite you to sign the petition and join the conversation.

Our schools. Our town. Our responsibility.

In short, we want our schools back.

Thank you for considering,

Ron Lawrence
citizen of Essex, Vermont