Holy municipal bond, Batman! This week the Warren Elementary School Board raised the issue of building a new school in Warren versus addressing the school’s safety and repair issues.
Just like that! Without a specific agenda item to alert voters that the issue would be discussed, the board had a far-ranging conversation about what would happen if the board (and town) were to pursue building a new school instead of fixing the existing one.
There are several things to keep in mind here. First, it has not been established that Warren Elementary School is unfixable. There are code and wiring issues, a leaking roof, mold in some walls and ventilation issues. The cost of fixing those issues is not yet known – what was warned on the agenda for this week’s meeting was to determine the language of the Request for Proposals that would go out for the project.
Second, remember that, thanks to Act 46, The Valley towns are potentially on track for early/accelerated merger of our school boards into one board. That means that whatever Warren does, rebuild new or repair, those costs become the costs of the entire new merged Washington West school district. In other words, taxpayers in Waterbury, Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Warren and Waitsfield will share in the cost of repairing (or replacing) Warren’s school much like these towns currently share the costs of Harwood.
The counter to that is that those towns are predicted to see significant property tax savings if they merge their boards and one reason for that is because Warren will be contributing its plentiful equalized pupils to the district – lowering per pupil spending across the district.
So is it reasonable for one community to saddle the other communities in the district with its debt? Or is this just an unfortunate intersection of timing in that Warren needs to do this work while the towns are trying to decide whether to merge school boards voluntarily or wait until they are forced?
What happens if all our schools suddenly need important repairs and upgrades before we merge voluntarily or are mandated to merge?
It is extremely hard to see how any long-term educational cost savings are going to come from Act 46.
