Unification Frequently Asked Questions

The following is a collection of questions asked by Westford residents concerning the upcoming unification vote.  Questions have been collected from Front Porch Forum, email, and in person.  This archive is meant to address Westford specific issues to supplement the FAQ already available on the RED Study Committee website.

Questions will be posted as they come.  Answers will be provided as soon as possible.



Q:  What happens to high school choice, especially for students already enrolled at another high school should the unification vote pass?

A:  The Articles of Agreement for forming a new unified district grandfather Westford students who have already begun high school, at a school other than Essex High School, when the new school district would begin operation. This means that students who have chosen a different high school for their freshman year in the 2016-2017 school year, would be able to continue in that high school until they graduate in 2020. The new unified union district would pay tuition for these students as well as any others who were sophomores or juniors during the 2016-2017 school year.

Under Act 129, Vermonts limited high school choice law, students still might have an opportunity to attend a high school other than EHS after a unified school district was formed. It is not, however, guaranteed. Essex High School has to offer 40 slots per year, across all grades, to students who wish to attend a different public high school. At present, only 4 of those slots are used. The other and perhaps harder piece is that the receiving schools, for example MMU and Fairfax, can decide how many incoming students they are willing to accept within some state guidelines.

Students who wanted to attend a high school other than EHS would have to apply for an opening at another school. If more students want to attend than there are openings, a lottery is conducted. No money changes hands between schools under Act 129.


Q:  There hasn't been any talk about transporting these student via the bus system. Can someone please elaborate on what the plan is for this situation?

A:  One potential benefit to unification for high school students is that transportation would likely be provided to EHS. This is a decision that would need to be made by the new school board for the unified union. That said, given state guidelines, it is extremely unlikely that transportation could be provided to Essex Town high school students and not to Westford's students.



Q:  Why are the proposed unification partners Essex Junction (Chittenden Central Supervisory Union member districts) and Essex Town (Essex Town School District)?  Did we consider other SU's or districts to study with like CESU (MMU)?

A:  In response to the possibility of Westford joining Chittenden East, here are some things to consider:

1. Westford's challenge is declining enrollment and the effect on our tax rates.  Joining a different supervisory union will not help.  Our hold harmless protection is going away.  If we had not had it this year, our tax rates would have been 7 cents higher.
2. If we were to unify with Chittenden East, all high school students would need to go to MMU and the 65-70% of Westford students that now choose Essex High School would no longer be able to go there.
3. Chittenden East is already receiving tax incentives under Act 156.  It's not clear whether tax incentives would be available were we to pursue this route or what they might be.
4. Westford has an 80 year relationship with Chittenden Central.  We share the same policies, curriculum and operating systems.  Joining a different school district has the potential to be disruptive to teachers and students.
5. There is a Career and Technical Center (CTE) located on the same campus as EHS that offers high quality technical programs and opportunities that many Westford students have accessed in the past.  The close proximity on the same campus heightens exposure to technical program choices for students, eliminates travel time to access these programs, and expands the array of educational program choices many students need and desire.
6. To qualify for the enhanced tax incentives under Act 46, new districts must be operational by July 1, 2017.  It's not clear that we could start from scratch at this point and still qualify for those incentives or that dollars would be available to fund such a study since CESU has already received dollars for their study and Westford has received dollars for the study we are engaged in.
7. To unify the new modified union in Chittenden East the voters in that district would have to agree.  We don’t have a traditional relationship with those towns and they would have to take on the costs of educating all of our high school students and the cost of transporting them. 

The loss of high school choice as we've known it is difficult.  The alternative, eroding the quality of our elementary school or having much higher taxes, seems harder.  

Q:  If the other schools we are supposed to consolidate with have not paid off their schools and have debt then will the property tax payers of Westford be held responsible on that debt? 

1. How much in bonds and debt do the other schools have? 
2. What physical condition are the other schools in? 
3. If other schools we are supposed to consolidate with need major renovations or new buildings, will the property tax payers of Westford be held responsible for these costs? 
4. Westford has payed off their school debt, do we now loose this asset?

A:  We did ask these questions and all of the answers can be found on the Red Study website at www.redstudy.wordpress.com You will find the answers under the Articles of Agreement, the lists of assets and liabilities and the lists of capital needs. The assets are listed according to the accounting principles that school business officers must use. It's important to remember that each district has been budgeting annual amounts for capital costs and debt service so when the budgets are combined they will already have funds for these kind of expenditures built into them.  


Q:  In the RED study it states;  "Another significant savings relates to the eventual elimination of school choice for the families of about 40 students who currently choose a school other than Essex High School. Under the merger, these students would be allowed to continue to attend their school of choice through graduation."

1. What is the dollar amount of the significant savings and how it is calculated.
2. Is there an estimation of how much our property values will be reduced by eliminating school choice.
3. In the BFP article, Art Woolf gives estimation for cost savings for a house in Westford valued at $350,000. I would like to know in a dollar amount what the RED study committee's estimation of savings would be from this scenario as a result of consolidation.

A:  

1. Current tuition for four grades worth of students attending high schools other than Essex is $553,000.  This was calculated by looking at the projected tuition that would have been paid and adding back some money because some additional faculty would need to be hired.   This is clearly outlined on the Red Study website. (redstudy.wordpress.com) The number of high school students in FY18, the first year of operation of the new school district, is projected to be 91. Using historical percentages of students who have accessed choice, 27-32 of them would have accessed school choice.
2. There were a couple of questions about property values if Westford loses school choice. We dont know any way to make that kind of assessment.
   People chose to live in a community for many different reasons. A corollary question that would need to be asked though is what will happen to our property values if we dont unify. We know that losing our hold harmless protection for declining enrollment is going to increase taxes by 7 cents. Without unification Westford will be faced with dramatically increasing property taxes and/or the erosion of the quality of education we provide. Taxes and educational quality are certainly factors that families consider when deciding where to live.
3. It is hard to predict future education tax rates because there are so many factors that are determined at the state level. What we do know is that hold harmless protection is going away and if Westford had not had that protection in FY16 the tax rate would have been $1.599 instead of $1.527.
   
   We also know that if the unified union with the incentives had been in place in FY16 the tax rate would have been $1.445.

Q:  This does not sound good for families to the east near Rt 15. Will their children be transported? How long would that ride be compared to MMU? Will this lower property values in that area when people realize the changes in options? Can exemptions be available to families in this geographic area?

A:  Students from the Route 15 side of town would be transported (assuming the new board decides to provide transportation.if they decide to provide it for Essex Town students they will have to provide it for all Westford students as well) and the cost has been included in the financial calculations. We dont know exactly how long the bus ride would be but we do know that some students from that area have chosen to attend Essex High School and some have chosen MMU. As we have written in other responses, there is a limited school choice law in place in Vermont and students can apply to go to other high schools under that law. transportation would not be provided for students who make this choice.