It's about as awkward as a seventh-grade school dance, the issue of school mergers is. Nobody wants to be the one to take this one out on the dance floor.
Yesterday, Essex, Essex Junction and Westford rejected a merger. So did Whiting and Sudbury.
This, of course, comes at a time when there is hue and cry over school spending and subsequent property taxes. One of the solutions considered last legislative session: consolidate some of Vermont 88 gazillion school districts. Legislators pondered the issue right up until the public told them not us, not here. Education Commissioner Richard Cate went out on the road to take the pulse of Vermont on the issue and heard from school board members everywhere - not us, not here.
Yesterday, more towns added to the cry of not us, not here.
Today at the governor's press conference, which Cate happened to be attending on another matter, he and Gov. Jim Douglas danced the awkward shuffle.
Cate says: If the state wants fewer schools it's going to take some sort of state-driven solution, as in a mandate from Montpelier, but whether that's what the "state" wants he leaves up to others.
Douglas says: He'll wait to hear what Cate's report on his tour of the state says. Can he picture forcing communities to consolidate their schools? "I think we ought to withhold judgment," he said. "It's a touchy subject to say the least."
A touchy subject no one is likely to want to be the first to touch.
- Terri Hallenbeck
