WILMINGTON- Vermont Commissioner of Education Armando Vilaseca met with members of Windham Southwest Supervisory Union’s “superboard” to discuss school consolidation and education funding matters at a special meeting Wednesday evening.

Board member Phil Taylor told the commissioner that, although the Legislature continues to put pressure on small schools, it appears to be the larger schools that are responsible for most of the increases in state education spending. “(Twin Valley’s) average increase over the last six years was 1.1%,” Taylor said. “Compare that with the statewide increase. We look around and we haven’t spent any money on our facility so we know (the statewide increase) wasn’t because of us. There’s a lot of pressure on small towns to consolidate to save money, but what we do doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. The increases are coming from big districts that are well represented, and they’re going to put more pressure on us to save money.”

Vilaseca agreed with Taylor, but he said large school districts also have lower per-pupil costs. “The biggest pressure on the ed fund comes from big districts, as it should,” the commissioner said. “Burlington has 4,500 students, and last year their budget increased by something like nine percent. (This year it’s 4.3%.) If they had come in with a two percent or three percent increase it would have lowered the statewide increase by half a percent. But if you look at their per-pupil cost, it’s the lowest in the state. Small schools have fixed costs that, sometimes, aren’t that much different from larger districts.”

Taylor said the budget increases at the 74 schools that have under 100 students only made up three percent of the state’s overall increase in education spending last year, while the 19 schools with over 1,000 students – 33% of students in the state – accounted for 42% of the increase. And, Taylor noted, the larger schools were already providing more options for their students. “Acts 60 and 68 penalized small schools for providing basic services, and have incentivized large schools to provide extras.”

Vilaseca said school officials in Burlington would disagree. “Burlington would argue that they’re just scratching the surface of what they can provide kids,” he said. “Every board is looking at what kind of efficiencies they can come up with to provide the best services.”

Taylor said he understood the economy of scale, but that under the state’s education funding law, smaller schools are forced to fund those fixed expenses by reducing their academic offerings.

“When Act 60 was passed, people were so self-righteous that you (“gold” towns) have too much and you need to share the wealth,” Taylor said. “Well, I have no problem with sharing the wealth, but a system that benefits (Burlington) at the expense of our children is just wrong on every level.”

Vilaseca noted that there are a number of consolidation proposals under discussion around the state, including a proposal by Bennington Senator Bob Hartwell, all aimed at reducing cost. Although Taylor said local districts see the result of consolidation of supervisory unions as a reduction of services, Vilaseca said he can see where there would be substantial savings, which would take some of the pressure off the state education fund, and some of the focus off local schools. But he said some districts, including small districts, refused to take steps that would reduce the cost of education. “I’m tired of being blamed for the cost of education,” he said. “I’m tired of having people blame folks like you, and not do anything about it.”

Board member Gary Sage said the best way to solve the problem of education funding for local towns was to repeal acts 60 and 68. “We’ve already saved as much as we can save,” said board member Gary Sage. “Everyone comes down from Montpelier and tells us you’ve got to do this, cut teachers, or consolidate, but give me some more money.”

Vermont School Boards Association Associate Director Win Goodrich said part of the funding crunch was thanks to a failure of the federal government to provide promised special education funding. But he said the towns don’t have control over Act 68. “What you do have control over is how Act 68 affects you,” he said. “And that’s what I do. Look at the concept of consolidating your K-6. I’m not saying you have to do it, but if you want to have an impact on the cost of education, you need to combine.”

Metcalfe asked the commissioner how he felt about a proposal that would allow joint contract school districts like Twin Valley to become union districts without going through a number of the steps now required under state statute. “Right now there’s a process of about 12 steps,” Metcalfe said. “We’ve gone through at least 10 of them by being a joint school district. It would be great if we could become a union district just by a vote of the electorate in the towns.”

Vilaseca said the change would require legislation, but that he’d support the proposal if it is introduced in the Legislature.

Vilaseca also told board members that the education department was recommending the extension of the state’s 50% funding for school capital construction projects that result in the reduction of the number of buildings in the district.

The commissioner thanked the board for their discussion. “I do listen and think about these things and go back and talk about them,” he said, noting that an earlier discussion with the WSSU superboard caused him to rethink his support for a consolidation proposal made by his predecessor, Richard Cate. “Many places have similar concerns.”