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The education secretary released a long-awaited — and for many anxiety-inducing — report Friday recommending which school districts should merge.

Acting Education Secretary Heather Bouchey recommended 18 consolidations, under a mandate written into the school district consolidation law, Act 46. In some cases, the secretary recommends that groups of districts come together, and in other cases, she has asked rural districts to pair up.

A total of 43 districts or groups of districts that filed “Section 9” proposals were included in the report, which is 189 pages long and was released Friday evening. The recommendations will be reviewed by the State Board of Education, which will release a final plan at the end of November.

Bouchey advised in 22 cases that mergers were ill-advised: In 12 districts she said mergers were not practicable, and in 10 cases, there were legal problems with a potential merger. She made no recommendation in three instances, and will allow those districts to pursue their own Act 46 process.

The recommendations came after a monthslong review process of local proposals led by Rebecca Holcombe, Bouchey’s predecessor as education secretary who held the secretary position through most of the Act 46 rollout and implementation.

After the passage of Act 46 in 2015, school districts were given more than two years to voluntarily merge with nearby districts and present proposals to the State Board of Education.

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Districts that did not voluntarily merge were required to evaluate their ability to meet the objectives of Act 46, talk with other districts in the area about how they might accomplish those goals together, and submit to the state board a proposal to merge, or achieve greater efficiency in other ways.

The education secretary’s deadline for a statewide plan was June 1. A FAQ sheet sent out before the release of the report made clear that the decisions are not final.

“The State Board of Education will review this proposed plan as the first of many steps, which will ultimately lead to the issuance of the final statewide plan in November,” the agency wrote.

The state board will hold three regional meetings from July to September to give the public an opportunity to weigh in on the plan and related issues.

A detailed timeline for Act 46 is available here. Information about everything else related to Act 46 is available here.

The 18 merger recommendations are as follows (or read the full report for detailed explanations):

The Brattleboro Union High School District and its Four Member Elementary Districts

Merge the governance structures of the Brattleboro Union High School District, the Brattleboro School District, the Dummerston School District, the Guilford School District, and the Putney School District into a single unified union school district.

The Missisquoi Valley Union High School District and its Three Member Elementary Districts

Merge the governance structures of the Missisquoi Valley Union High School District, the Franklin School District, the Highgate School District, and the Swanton School District into a single unified union school district.

The Bradford Incorporated District and the Oxbow Union High School Districts

Merge the governance structures of the Oxbow Union High School District, the Bradford Incorporated District, and the Newbury School District into a single unified union school district.

The Union 32 High School District and its Five Member Elementary Districts

Merge the governance structures of the Union 32 High School District, the Berlin School District, the Calais School District, the East Montpelier School District, the Middlesex School District, and the Worcester School District into a single unified union school district.

The Barnard Elementary School District

Merge the Barnard Elementary School District and the Windsor Central Modified Unified Union School District into a single UUSD by requesting the MUUSD to accept the Barnard District as a full PreK-12 member.

Cambridge Elementary School District

Merge the Cambridge Elementary School District and the Lamoille North Modified Unified Union School District into a single unified union school district by requesting the MUUSD to accept the Cambridge District as a full PreK12 member.

The Huntington Elementary School District

Merge the Huntington Elementary School District and the Mount Mansfield Modified Unified Union School District into a single UUSD by requesting the MUUSD to accept the Huntington District as a full PreK-12 member.

The Orwell Elementary School District

Merge the Orwell Elementary School District and the Slate Valley Modified Unified Union School District into a single UUSD by requesting the MUUSD to accept the Orwell District as a full PreK-12 member.

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The Windham Elementary School District

Merge the Windham Elementary School District and the West River Modified Unified Union School District into a single UUSD by requesting the MUUSD to accept the Windham District as a full PreK-12 member.

The Mount Anthony Union High School District and its Five Member Districts

Merge the governance structures of the Bennington Incorporated District, the Pownal Elementary District, the Shaftsbury Elementary District, and the Woodford Elementary District into a single union elementary school district.

North Country Union High School District and its Member Districts and the Coventry School District

Merge the governance structures of the following pairs of districts into three union elementary school districts, each of which would provide for the education of its resident children as follows:

– The Brighton School District and the Charleston School District – to be a union elementary school district responsible for the PreK-8 education of its students

– The Derby School District and the Holland School District – to be a union elementary school district responsible for the PreK-6 education of its students

– The Jay School District and the Westfield School District – to be a union elementary school district responsible for the PreK-6 education of its students.

Blue Mountain Union District

Merge the governance structures of the Blue Mountain Union District, the Bradford School District, the Newbury School District, and the Oxbow Union High School District into a single unified union school district.

Cabot School District

Danville School District

Twinfield Union School District

– Merge the governance structures of the Cabot School District and the Danville School District into a single unified union school district that provides for the education of its PreK-12 students by operating multiple schools, and redraw SU boundaries so that the new UUSD becomes a member district of the Caledonia Central SU.

– Merge the Twinfield Union School District with one or more other districts and/or move it to a larger SU when uncertainties in the region are resolved and the state board has sufficient information to make a decision.

The Enosburgh School District & the Richford School District

Merge the governance structures of the Enosburgh School District and the Richford School District into a single unified union school district that provides for the education of its PreK-12 students by operating multiple schools.

The Montgomery School District

Merge the governance structures of the Montgomery School District and the Franklin Northeast PreK-8 Unified Union School District, acknowledging that the UUSD’s voter-approved articles of agreement granted advance acceptance to Montgomery’s membership.

The Sheldon School District

Merge the governance structures of the Sheldon School District and the Franklin Northeast PreK-8 Unified Union School District, acknowledging that the UUSD’s voter-approved articles of agreement granted advance acceptance to Sheldon’s membership if merger was required by the statewide plan.

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