Act 46

This week House lawmakers gave an extension to some—but not all—school districts that have yet to merge under Act 46, giving some districts as much as an additional year to comply with the state's school district merger mandate.

House lawmakers have decided that some Vermont school districts need more time to comply with a merger mandate, but they’ve left a fast-approaching deadline in place for others.

House lawmakers appear poised to grant a yearlong reprieve to about half of the Vermont school districts that face a fast-approaching deadline for complying with a controversial school governance mandate.

The Vermont House of Representatives will vote next week on postponing implementation of a controversial school governance law.

A tri-partisan group of lawmakers want to postpone a legal deadline that will otherwise force Vermont school districts into involuntary mergers by July 1.

The Agency of Education is recommending that school districts abide by the deadlines spelled out in Act 46, Vermont’s school district consolidation law, even though a court case challenging the law has been delayed.

A group of school districts filed a legal appeal Thursday challenging Act 46, the state’s school district consolidation law.

An attorney who represents about 25 school districts that will be forced to merge under Act 46 says the newly approved statewide plan will likely be appealed in court.

For the past three years, school districts around Vermont have been in a voluntary phase, allowing voters and school boards to work on their own Act 46 merger plans. In June, the acting Secretary of Education issued a statewide plan making a series of recommendations about unmerged districts. As the State Board of Education prepares to announce its final recommendations next week, Vermont Edition looks at how decisions are being made and what has and hasn't worked in the process.

There were two Act 46 merger proposals on Tuesday’s ballots, and voters overwhelmingly rejected both of them.

State government almost shut down earlier this year, and the fight was largely over education funding.

And all of those debates in Montpelier, and negotiations over taxes and education costs? They’re all rooted in the decisions that local school boards make around this time of year.

After an all-day meeting Tuesday in Bethel, the State Board of Education has adopted a set of guidelines to help steer its decisions about which school districts will be forced to merge under Act 46.