I believe strongly that an Act 46 merger will negatively affect the children and the teachers in the Brattleboro schools. As we all know, Brattleboro has a much higher rate of poverty than other towns in the WESEU and we also have many families who have been negatively affected by the opioid epidemic with families being disrupted and children in foster care or being raised by caring grandparents. Brattleboro’s school board, supported by our Town meeting Representatives, has implemented many programs to help these children and other children, who have learning and emotional disabilities, be successful in school.  We have many paraprofessionals in the classroom, after school tutoring, summer school, behavioral interventionists and, this year, Brattleboro added a social worker to specifically address the family issues resulting from the opioid epidemic. In spite of these additional programs, Brattleboro currently has the lowest school tax rate of any of the towns in the WSESU.

I hope members of our community will vote against consolidating our local school boards into a centralized mega-board. A consolidated board would remove the power to make locally responsive decisions and intentionally sever the bonds between communities and their schools. A single board will find itself so busy administering multiple facilities that expediency will force them to limit local input.