The State Board of Education will consider four more Act 46 school district consolidation plans at its monthly meeting next week.
Under Act 46, the state's school district consolidation law, the state board must first approve merger proposals before those plans go before voters in each town.
At the April 19 Board of Education meeting, members of the Chittenden South, Orleans Central, Washington West and Franklin Northeast supervisory unions will ask the state board to approve their merger proposals.
If the state board approves those plans then voters will consider the proposed mergers in special votes on June 7.
Districts that are able to get their merger plans approved by the voters under the state's accelerated phase receive financial incentives that expire on July 1.
Earlier this week voters in the Addison Rutland supervisory union rejected an Act 46 consolidation proposal.
The law allows each district to write its own plan, and in Addison Rutland the merger required a unanimous vote by all of the town in the district.
The town of Orwell did not support the merger.
Agency of Education spokeswoman Stephanie Bracken says even though the consolidation plan was turned down, the vote still pointed toward wide spread support for Act 46, and for the process.
In Addison-Rutland, according to preliminary results, 58 percent of all voters supported the consolidation proposal.
And Bracken says voters in West Haven and Hubbardton voted overwhelmingly to give up school choice and join the proposed unified union (PK-12) school district.
"These results show that the process is working," Bracken says. "Districts that are ready to move forward are doing so; those that need more time to determine how best to meet the policy goals of Act 46 have more time to consider their options."
In the vote in Lamoille North Supervisory Union last week, four of the six towns approved the merger.
That plan was written to allow for a merger with a simple majority, and so the schools in Eden, Hyde Park, Johnson and Belvidere will merge under a single board.
According to Bracken 65 percent of all of the voters in Lamoille North approved the unification plan, with Belvidere voting to give up school choice.
Due to the structure of the study committee's proposal, a modified unified union school district will be formed providing PK-12 education for the four districts that voted in the affirmative, while Cambridge and Waterville will retain their separate PK-6 school districts.
