WALDEN – Two full-time high school students from Walden are attending high school at the Danville School, with an additional student at 60% of full time because they are taking a class elsewhere, according to the Danville School.
Students living in Walden will lose the option of attending high school in Danville if voters decide to close grades 9-12 for the 2026-27 school year during a December 6 town meeting vote.
High school students in the Caledonia Cooperative School District (Cal Co-op), which includes Walden, Barnet and Waterford may choose any high school and have their tuition paid by the district.
Students finishing Walden middle school often choose one of the nearby schools: Danville, Hazen Union, Twinfeld, Cabot or St. Johnsbury Academy.
High schools, except for Danville, would continue to be options for Walden, and other Cal Co-op high school students, if Danville votes to close its high school at the end of this academic year.
The school board has scheduled the vote on whether to close grades 9-12 at Danville School for a town meeting on December 6.
Informational meetings prior to that are scheduled before the regular October 22 and November 4 school board meetings, at 6 p.m.
A final informational meeting is scheduled for December 3, just two days after the December 1 date by which the state’s Act 73 School Redistricting Task Force must submit up to three proposed school district configurations for the general assembly to consider, and three days before the December 6 vote.
Vermont’s General Assembly will return January 6, and will not have had the opportunity to debate the merits of the various reconfigurations proposed by the task force before the Danville vote.
The vote will be limited to Danville residents. Cal Co-op district resi
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
