Act 170 school merger groupings announced, meetings in weeks What is good faith?

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Last Thursday, Sept. 17, while discussing the Act 170 voluntary school merger process, TRSU Superintendent Layne Millington asked members of the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District what other group of school districts they would be interested in merging with outside of their Group 7 schools of GM, Ludlow/Mount Holly/Springfield which has an approximate population of 2,200 students.

Most leaned toward Group 6, which includes Rockingham, Bellows Falls High, Grafton/Athens, Westminster and the River Valley Tech Center. The 20 groups throughout the state were set in the statute as guidance for the process..

Low and behold, on the following day, the Vermont Learning Collaborative announced the revised groups with Groups 6 and 7 put together to begin talks on the advisability of mergers. The new Group 7 has a population listed as 3,087.

Friday’s announcement opened a brief window for feedback on the groupings and meeting schedules, with school board chairs talking with Lead Facilitator Dave Younce. That window closes on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and final groupings will be announced on Friday, Sept. 25. District boards will still have the authority to vote to reassign themselves to another group after that date.

In an email, Younce encouraged board chairs to make updates on the merger work a standing item on their agendas to keep their boards and communities up to date.

Act 170 sets a deadline of Oct. 15 for the groups to begin meeting. Younce told board chairs that the short timeframe may be challenging to meet and that he and the regional facilitators will be as accommodating as possible to get them scheduled.

What is good faith?

One aspect of the law is that districts must work on the mergers “in good faith,” but the legislature did not define what constitutes either good or bad faith. Vermont Learning Collaborative Executive Director Jill Graham told The Telegraph in a July interview that the facilitators would be working on a standard that can be used consistently in merger committees throughout the state.

Younce has written that the “framework begins with a presumption of good faith and focuses on meaningful participation in the work required by Act 170, rather than a district’s position on merger or any particular governance outcome. Disagreement, advocacy, criticism, and opposition to merger are all compatible with good faith participation.”

A final standard for good faith is expected to be finished on Sept. 25. In a recent interview Younce told The Telegraph that it will be important for facilitators to make sure that participants have a clear understanding of that standard.

Other area groups

The other groupings of nearby districts will also be working on voluntary merger proposals to put before their voters. They include:

Group 8 which is made up of  Hartford School District,  Hartland School District, Mount Ascutney School District, Mountain Views School District, Pittsfield School District and the Weathersfield School District with a total student population of 3,539.

Group 3 which is made up of Mettawee School District, Readsboro School District, River Valleys Unified School, Searsburg School District, Somerset School District, Southwest Vermont Technical Center, Stamford School District, Stratton School District, Taconic and Green Regional School District, Wells Spring Unified Union School District, Windham School District, and Winhall School District with a total student population of 2,792.

A note on the number of students. These numbers are what’s known as Average Daily Membership which is counted for a period early in each school year. These numbers represent the most recent two year average.