As consideration of the Pawlet/Rupert/Wells school merger continues, the committee, under the direction of advisor Dan French, has met again (7/29/16, Mettawee Community School).

Not all that much happened.

But! One key thing did (drumroll please…?)

A decision was made as to the proposed new school board. The committee agreed unanimously that the new school board will have nine-members, proportionally representing the three towns. Therefore, the new school board will look like this:

• Pawlet: 4 members
• Rupert: 2 members
• Wells: 3 members 

That’s it! I just saved you an hour and a half meeting, so, you’re welcome.

The next meeting will take place August 8th at 6:30 pm at the Wells School. At that meeting they expect to start to look at some financial projections, for both designated and non-designated high school scenarios. They will also discuss a draft of a newsletter to be sent out from the committee.

Side note: If you do decide to come to a meeting, please be aware that currently the committee is only taking a total of ten minutes of public comments at the beginning of each meeting. They will also accept written comments. Currently they are not responding to comments or answering questions; members of the community may sit in on the meetings but may not yet participate in the discussions. The time for questions and commentary will be when the committee has its public hearing for a more fully-fleshed out merger proposal. They are currently projecting the public hearing will be in late August or early November. So, stay-tuned.

Merger Committee Members who were at the meeting on 7/29/16:

Sue Ceglowski, Susan Hostley, John Malcolm, Courtney Bishop, Diane Mach, Rico Balzano, Arlene Bentley and William Meyer.