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Close Schools to Cut Costs?

Hinesburg, Vermont - September 23, 2009

The hallways are crowded at Champlain Valley Union High School. Enrollment here is up 79 students from a year ago-- the largest one year increase the school has seen in years.

"In a rural town like Charlotte or Hinesburg you can have a farm open and a development built and that can add students very quickly to your school," explained Sean McMannon, the principal at CVU.

But most schools can't relate. Enrollment as a whole will decline for the 14th straight year in Vermont-- down almost 14,000 students or 13 percent.

That's prompted the Montpelier school board to study the idea of merging that city's high school with nearby U-32.

"I can say in the last few years I've definitely seen more school boards at least taking up the issue and talking about it," said Jill Remick, of the Vermont Education Dept.

Voters in North Hero will also go to the polls in November to decide whether to merge with South Hero. Enrollment in both towns is declining.

And last year two of the state's smallest schools did close. Hancock and Granville are now without their own schools.

Vermont Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca is urging other districts to follow suit to try to control costs. Per pupil spending in Vermont is among the highest in the country-- about $9,000 a student-- and enrollment is expected to continue to drop statewide for at least the next 10 years.

"It won't be a huge drop, but it would be about 10,000 students over the course of 10 years, which that's about 10 percent of our student body," Remick said. "So that's significant."

Back at CVU things are looking better, but enrollment here is also expected to level off soon. At least a dozen of the new students transferred here from nearby private schools and the school may lose some of those students as the economy rebounds.

It's proof that no Vermont school is immune to declining enrollment-- at least in the long term.

Now one statistic that is somewhat surprising-- about one-third of Vermont schools have grown over the past two years, but the overall trend does still point toward a steady decline in students.

And while several districts are exploring consolidation there are a lot of hoops for schools to jump through before that becomes reality.

Keagan Harsha - WCAX News