School officials from the four towns that make up the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union say an education reform law designed to consolidate the school system might actually create a wedge.
The main goal of Act 46 is to create equal access to facilities and resources for public school students. However, in this case it also eliminates the students' ability to choose which school they would like to attend.
Under the plan, all students would be filtered into Windsor High School. Nate McKeen, the chairman of the Weathersfield School Board, says this would create long commutes for some.
“Weathersfield, for example, is just too spread out to require all of our kids to travel to Windsor," he said. "There would be cases where some kids would be on the bus in the morning and in the evening well over an hour before school started or after school was let out.”
The board is drafting a proposal to be voted on in the towns of West Windsor, Windsor, Weathersfield and Hartland.
The towns will ask the Vermont Agency for Education for an exemption from Act 46 in this area.
Explore the status of school district consolidation efforts around the state:
