Facilitators chosen for Act 170 school merger talks to begin in October

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The Vermont Learning Collaborative announced on Friday the names of the seven Act 170 facilitators who will guide school districts in evaluating the possibility of voluntary school mergers between now and Sept. 1, 2027.

Any proposed mergers will be voted on by the communities involved in the merger at Town Meeting in March of 2028. School districts must appoint representatives to the meetings by Tuesday Sept. 15. Many districts have already chosen their representatives. Meetings of the merger committees must begin by this Oct. 15. 

Act 170 also created Cooperative Education Services Areas — CESAs, which are intended to cut the costs of goods and some services to school districts through cooperative buying and training. There are seven CESAs but the Vermont Learning Collaborative was created before Act 170 and was given the lead in selecting and working with merger facilitators by the legislature. The Learning Collaborative is comprised mostly of towns in Windsor and Windham counties.

The selection of the seven facilitators was made by VTLC Executive Director Jill Graham and Lead Facilitator David Younce. Younce will be a familiar name to those who followed the Act 46 merger process of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union. As the superintendent of the Mill River District, he was courting the schools in Ludlow and Mt. Holly while making it clear that a merger would involve closing Black River High School. Ludlow voted down the proposal but Black River could not be saved.

The facilitators for our area are:

Dana Brown – Southeast Region: Brown is an educator from the Boston area with 46 years of experience in the classroom and as a principal. He was the 2016 Massachusetts Principal of the Year. The Southeast Region is comprised of Springfield Supervisory District and the supervisory unions of Mountain Views, Two Rivers, Windham Central, Windham Northeast, Windham Southeast,  Windham Southwest and Windsor Southeast.

Dr. Luvelle Brown – South West Region: Dr. Brown has been a teacher, principal and superintendent of the Ithaca, N.Y. schools and he was the 2017 New York State Superintendent of the Year. The Southwest Region is comprised of  the supervisory unions of Bennington-Rutland, Greater Rutland County, Rutland Northeast and the Southwest Vermont; and the supervisory districts of Mill River Unified Union, Rutland City and Slate Valley Unified Union.

Act 170 included guidance for 20 possible groupings for merger committees but left it open for facilitators to form merger study groups that differ from those suggested groups. The merger committees must include advisory representation from the career and tech districts (like River Valley in Springfield) although those representatives do not get a vote in merger talks.

Currently, the two districts that make up Two Rivers Supervisory Union — Green Mountain and Ludlow Mt. Holly — are grouped in a merger committee with Springfield (Group 7 on the map.)

Districts that include the towns of Rockingham/Bellows Falls, Athens, Grafton and Windham are in a group that extends south as far as Marlboro (Group 6).

And Londonderry, Weston, Peru, Landgrove, Winhall and Stratton are grouped with districts that stretch to Middletown Springs in the north (Group 3.)

Districts can ask to be moved from one group to another. Recently, the board of the Windham School District voted to petition to be moved into the group that includes Londonderry.

Working on the process

In a July interview with The Telegraph,  Learning Collaborative chief Jill Graham said that the merger processes need to look similar “whether you’re in Burlington or Barre or Bennington or Brattleboro; that you’re experiencing the same merger study committee training … some of the same protocols.”

But, she added that “we’re sensitive to the uniqueness and the needs of what those different communities have. That’s going to be the real balance.”

On Tuesday Younce told The Telegraph that he would be meeting with the regional facilitators on Wednesday to begin working though questions about the process.

Asked what he thought success looked like Younce said “Conversations that have brought communities together – represented by school board members – to talk about what could be. To have constructive and forward looking conversations about ways to structure delivery and governance models that benefit kids in Vermont.”

“If those processes have been delivered well, if people have been able to participate, if there’s been adequate venue for public input to be heard,” said Younce “with robust discussion and good data from the Agency of Education. If all those pieces come together and people felt heard and had enough information to make good decisions I think that’s a really cool process.”

Younce said that it’s not up to the facilitators to make things happen. “It’s really clear that facilitation is part of Act 170 but implementing Act 170 is not the responsibility of the facilitators.

While most of the facilitators are from Vermont the two in the southern part of the state are from neighboring states. Younce explained that Luvelle Brown has worked extensively as a consultant in Vermont school districts and is well known here. Younce said Dana Brown is a veteran educator with a lot of experience in working with rural districts that made sense for the Southeast region.  Younce said a lot of thought went into aspects like the amount of travel needed to handle the meetings especially in the winter.

The meetings of the study committees will be open to the public and warned the same way local school board meetings are warned. Younce said that while the meetings would be primarily in person, a remote option will be available.