photo by Hal Gray
Bobbie Nisbet (left) organized the January 9 community meeting in Greensboro’s Lakeview Union Elementary School to discuss the petition to close Lakeview. Tim Nisbet (center) moderated the meeting, Patty Launer (behind Tim) wrote speaker’s comments on wall sheets, and Kyle Gray (far right) managed the sound system, including Zoom speakers.
GREENSBORO — At a gathering at Lakeview Elementary School in Greensboro on Tuesday, January 9, to discuss a petition to close the school, it was clear that many would say, as did Daniel Webster of Dartmouth College, “It is a small school, but there are those who love it.”
Bobbie Nisbet opened the meeting by explaining that it had been called in response to a district-wide petition asking for a non-binding Australian Ballot vote to close Lakeview Elementary. Instead of a district wide vote of the electorate, the school board decided that an advisory poll will be conducted in the member towns during the March 2024 town meetings.
Jay Modry, a teacher at Hazen Union with a son at Lakeview Elementary, then reviewed the history of legislative acts that brought us to this point. Acts 60, 66 and 68 resulted in tax increases in Greensboro because of the number of summer homes that did not send children to local schools. Act 46 forced Greensboro and Stannard to merge with Hardwick and Woodbury (and become the new Mountain View District). Act 127, which is complex, has reshaped the education funding formula.
photo by Hal Gray
David Kelley (standing, center) addresses attendees at the Greensboro Community Meeting, January 9, in the Lakeview Union Elementary School, to discuss the petition to close the Lakeview School.
Act 127 has created a new “weighted” education funding formula taking into account levels of poverty in the district, small schools, and density of population. The additional funds generated by Act 127 have allowed the Mountainview Elementary School District to increase its budget for the coming school year by approximately one million dollars.
Bobbie Nisbet reported that she has been in communication with Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Baker, who has told her that closing Lakeview before the 2025-2026 school year is out of the question. Others reported that the superintendent warned that considerations such as the weighted funding formula, added transportation cost, and the complexity of the revenue side make it almost impossible to predict any changes to the tax rates.
Bobbie Nisbet further explained that Greensboro paid the $890,284 assessed for Lakeview from local taxes, but that Greensboro was also considered a “gold town” and paid an additional $2.1 million into the State Education Fund. It was also noted that the State Education Fund paid $3.2 million to Hardwick to support its share of Mountain View.
Alice Perron reported that the census figures on median income of the year-round population in Greensboro are among the lowest in the state. She also noted that education in the arts, nature, science all had hands-on programs here. There were further discussions of the public assets in or around Greensboro and their potential for enhancing educational opportunities: in particular, the Highland Center for the Arts, Circus Smirkus, Caspian Lake, and the Craftsbury Outdoor Center were all mentioned.
Rose Modry called in and gave a shout-out to the teachers at Lakeview who “are doing a great job!” She also noted that we don’t yet have any numbers about putting pre-K programs into the Lakeview School. These would be among the numbers to get from the central office.
Lorelei Wheeler noted that Lakeview has the same number of incoming kindergartners as it has graduating sixth graders.
Ed Sunday-Winters noted that the petition might actually have done a favor for the community that wants to keep the school. He noted that votes were going to be held in four towns, so people who care should contact friends throughout the district to encourage voting.
David Kelley is a Vermont attorney. He lives in Greensboro and is a former chair of the Hazen Union School Board. He was part of the legal team that represented more than two dozen rural elementary school districts that appealed forced mergers under Act 46.
