photo by Hal Gray
The Mountain View Union Elementary School District Board were present at the December 28 meeting at Greensboro’s Lakeview Union School to hear public comments on a petition to close Lakeview Union School. Seated at the table (far right) are Samantha Friend, Board Chair, and, on
Friend
‘s right, Vice Board Chair, Ann Peltz.
by Gazette Staff
GREENSBORO — A petition calling for a vote of the electorate to close the Lakeview Elementary School in Greensboro was presented and considered at a special meeting of the Mountain View Elementary School District Board on December 28. Approximately 60 Greensboro residents were in attendance, almost all solidly in opposition to the petition.
The board met at Lakeview in executive session for about an hour with its attorney, Sean Twoey, to consider its options. According to other lawyers familiar with education law, the board had the option to deny the vote or allow it to go forward. In either case, the vote of the electorate would not have been sufficient to close Lakeview.
Under Vermont law, the decision to close a school rests exclusively with the school board. The Mountain View School District Articles of Agreement add the requirement that such a decision by the board must be validated by the vote of a majority of the electorate within the district.
photo by Hal Gray
Some of the attendees at the December 28 meeting of the Mountain View Union Elementary School District Board at Lakeview Union School heard public comments on a petition to close Lakeview Union School.
After consultation with its attorney and after listening to the testimony of approximately a dozen of the attendees who appeared in person (mostly from Greensboro), as well as other attendees who appeared remotely (mostly from Hardwick), the board decided to deny the petition.
The board, however, did not deny the petition outright. It called for each of the towns in the merged district (Greensboro, Hardwick, Stannard, and Woodbury) to poll the electorate on Town Meeting Day to gather a better sense of the electorate’s position on the issue.
