Act 170 merger study group holds first meeting

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

BELLOWS FALLS

For the schools of the Group 7 merger study committee, the work mandated by the Act 170 public school transformation law began Oct. 13 at Bellows Falls High School.

Representatives of the Green Mountain, Springfield, Rockingham, Bellows Falls High, Westminster and Athens/Grafton school districts were welcomed by facilitator Dana Brown, who explained that he was not a “decision maker” and was not there to recommend or push for any particular outcome. But rather, he said, he was there to help the group consider the available data and support a respectful dialog.

Brown skipped around a bit in this organizational agenda, discussing committee norms, such as civility, before putting the question of who should chair the committee on the table. Saying that she is seven and a half months pregnant and entering into an extended maternity leave, Krista Gay of the Athens/Grafton School District volunteered to take the chair and was quickly elected. The board also adopted Roberts’ Rules for Small Boards, which allows for less formal meetings.

Bob Flint, of River Valley Technical Center, is in an advisory role now but Act 170 prevents a tech center representative from voting since its student body comes from other schools. Flint said the hoped that in the future he would be able to fully participate.  The committee members are:

• Karen Blanchard – Westminster School District;
• Jerusa Contee – Rockingham School District;
• Lisa Sanders – Green Mountain Unified School District;
• Troy Palmer – Springfield School District;
• Emily Ferenc – Bellows Falls Union High School (substituting for Ben Wallace); and
• Krista Gay of the Athens/Grafton School District.

Proportionality

The six districts sitting around the table were equal on Tuesday. Every member had an equal vote. But at its next meeting the committee must decide how it wants to handle proportional representation based on student population. This is a tall order since, at one end of the spectrum the Athens/Grafton district has 47 students while at the other, the Springfield district has 1,184. The total from all the schools is 2,768.

Each district by population and percent of the total are:

• Athens/Grafton – 47 students or 1.7 percent of the total
• Westminster – 191 students or 6.9 percent
• Bellows Falls Union High – 310 students or 11.2 percent
• Rockingham – 443 students or 16 percent
• Green Mountain Unified – 593 students or  21.4 percent
• Springfield  – 1,184 students or 42.8 percent

Brown presented two ideas for calculating proportional representation. One was to have multiple members from the larger districts while the other was to have each member’s votes weighted by their district’s percentage.

Palmer noted that without Springfield, the other districts combined  could not reach the Act 170 goal of 2,000, and that fact should be reflected in the voting power of Springfield. At the same time, achieving that would be difficult since Springfield only has five school board members and it would require many more to fully represent the size of the student population. That would also result in a large committee, which would slow the process down.

Palmer was in favor of each committee member having a vote that is weighted to represent their district but moved to table the discussion to give committee members a chance to consider the options and talk with their boards.

The importance of data for decision-making

During public comment, Cheryl Charles, who chairs the Westminster School District, encouraged the committee to look for evidence, question assumptions and get real data. Charles said there are many options during a merger and the committee should look at the pros and cons of each.

But gathering the data may be a sticking point. In a weekly memo to superintendents and school district board chairs David Younce, the Act 170 lead facilitator provided a schedule of when the Agency of Education might provide the data that would be at the heart of the committee’s work. AOE anticipated the following delivery schedule:

• Monday, Oct. 19: AOE will preview enhanced school and district data reports during a statewide data convening with superintendents. Although developed primarily for the purposes of continuous improvement planning, these reports are expected to provide some information that may be useful to merger committees. VTLC representatives are not a part of that session.
• By Saturday, Oct. 31: Updated school and district profiles are expected from AOE, along with a memo identifying currently available data, how to access it, and areas where districts may need to supply additional local information to support merger committee work.
• Late November: Educational Quality Rubrics are expected to become available as the State Board of Education continues its work on the Quality Framework, which is the tool against which any merger proposals will be assessed by AOE and SBE.
• End of December: The State Board of Education target for completion and official approval of the Quality Framework.
• January 2027: AOE anticipates releasing additional tools to support evaluation of potential merger configurations, including educational quality analysis. A finalized list of additional tools, including financial modeling resources, and their anticipated delivery dates has not yet been provided.

The merger study work is a heavy lift for volunteers from local school boards and the AOE has had since June to look at and anticipate what they would need to succeed. But the deliverables on the list stretch into the fourth month of a 12-month schedule. If the AOE misses any of these deadlines the committee’s work will likely become more difficult.