WHITINGHAM- School board members are set to hold two informational meetings before a referendum on Wednesday, May 27, that could dissolve the Twin Valley Joint School District.
The board will offer a PowerPoint presentation on several options at the informational meetings held at the school on Monday, May 18, and Thursday, May 21, at 7 pm. Whitingham Parent-Teacher Group member Shirley Felisko said the PTG would be offering free babysitting at the school during the meetings so parents would be able to attend.
PTG member Dottie Fisher said four high school students had been recruited to help with child care, but the group is looking for more volunteers. Board member Ed Metcalfe asked if the PTG was asking for a donation for the service. “We hadn’t thought about it,” said Felisko.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have a donation can out,” said Metcalfe.
Principal Bill Anton said he would spread the word about the meetings through the school newsletter, and by posting the information on the school Web site and on an informational sign outside the school. But the school won’t be notifying parents through the school’s “Alert Now” telephonic messaging system. “That’s meant to be for urgent information to parents, and I’d like to leave it that way,” said school board chair Seth Boyd. “I’d like it to be a thing that people pay attention to when they get a notification. I’d hate to get into advertising on it.”
The presentation will include information about the educational program at several high schools in the region, as well as answers to a number of “frequently asked questions” developed by the board with public input. In their answers to the questions, board members said voting “yes” on the ballot means “the contract with Wilmington for Twin Valley School District will be terminated as of June 30, 2010. There will no longer be a Twin Valley Middle High School. The board will have another special meeting for voters to decide what option to proceed with starting July 1, 2010.”
Board members said that voting “no” means “Twin Valley School District will remain for grades 6-12. It does not mean that elementary students will be combined with Wilmington at this time. There will continue to be studies on options for elementary students as well as facilities options for both districts.”
According to the “FAQ” sheet, there are two alternative options currently under consideration. Under Option 1, Whitingham would tuition their high school students. But the option could cost considerably more than the current Twin Valley configuration, and Whitingham could see their per-pupil expenditures rise from $13,979 under the Twin Valley system to $15,595 for high school choice – resulting in a tax rate almost 23 cents higher than the current rate.
Under Option 2, Whitingham would tuition their middle and high school students, grades 7-12. The second option would still cost more than Twin Valley, according to estimates, but only by about $46 per pupil. The increase would add less than a penny to the tax rate.
During the first year, under either school choice option, Whitingham would face a one-time increase in spending for teachers’ severance pay.
Windham Southwest Supervisory Union Superintendent Dr. M. Peter Wright told board members that the Wings program has won another 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. The five-year grant will fund the program with $202,434 over each of the next three years. The funding will be reduced over the final two years. Wright said he expected the total funding to exceed $700,000 over the five years. “That’s a great infusion in terms of programs for kids and for the local economy,” he said.
Wright noted that the grant proposal for the WSSU Wings program, which is administered by executive director Lynn Feal-Staub, was ranked among the top five of 22 schools that submitted proposals, and the WSSU program was one of only three that were funded without conditions. Only 14 of 22 grant proposals were funded, and proposals from Brattleboro Town School District, Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, and Windham Northeast Supervisory Union were among those rejected by the state for the funding. “That’s a real feather in (Feal-Staub’s) hat,” Wright said.
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