Champlain Valley School District school busses in Hinesburg on Monday, January 5, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger This story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Citizen on Apr 2, 2026. An administrative committee at Champlain Valley School District is honing in on a final recomme ndation about whether to merge Charlotte and Hinesburg’s community schools. Although a draft report to the board isn’t expected for just over a month, an administrative committee, like the group that researched a phone-free policy last fall, has been studying the feasibility and impact of linking the schools in some capacity since the summer. The scope and charge of the committee had initially been to evaluate the current and potential future configuration, but has since been narrowed to first look at consolidating the two schools’ grades 6-8 at the Charlotte Central School building at some point in the future. The conversation about a merger, however, isn’t entirely new for the district. “Since I’ve joined the board, the discussion of, should we combine CCS and HCS has been something that’s been discussed,” board chair Meghan Metzler said. “It’s been well over a decade, and I think the discussion has been, can we create a robust middle school experience for our middle school students?” While the idea is to hopefully find some cost savings, the overall goal is better student outcomes, while providing a much more robust middle school experience. Plus, there are some clear inequities, mostly facilities wise, with the two schools. For example, Metzler said, there are two gyms in Charlotte Central School, along with significant playing and athletic fields. In Hinesburg, much of the school’s happenings are constrained by the environment — it is in a floodplain, preventing the district from building a ball field near the school. “So, this was kind of an opportunity to try and solve all those different things and ultimately provide more opportunities for kids,” she said. The district’s chief operations officer, Gary Marckres, walked the board through the impact of the possible merger on facilities, transportation and how much cost would be associated to make the move possible. At Charlotte Central School, there are 33 total classrooms — 17 on the first floor and 16 on the second. According to Marckres and the committee’s evaluations, the second floor capacity for grades 6-8 in the ‘27/28 school year could be 375 with 25 students per room. The projected consolidated enrollment in the next two years is 323 students. The first floor also has the capacity to accommodate the projected 48 Charlotte Central School grade 5 students for the ‘27/28 school year. “They’re currently upstairs, so that’s why we would need to move them downstairs,” Marckres told the board. While technically feasible from a numbers standpoint, there are still some significant challenges, primarily in space. It would be tight for important services outside of the classroom, like intervention space and other one on one behavioral work. Marckres said they aren’t technically challenges the district couldn’t remedy, but it could result in an initial roughly $300,000 investment in renovations likely to the school’s kitchen and the cafeteria. Sound mitigation would be necessary with larger lunch cohorts, with updates to equipment and the serving line, and some electrical and flooring work. The current science room would likely also need to be renovated to remove lab stations, patch floor penetrations and carpet. Aside from just facilities feasibility, the committee has looked at the impact transportation for kids in Hinesburg. According to Marckres, the merge would likely require four morning and afternoon buses and would likely mean an additional bus and driver. “It’s about 15 to 25 minutes additional time in the morning and afternoon for HCS students to attend at Charlotte,” Marckres said. “We definitely think that that’s significant and worth a look at.” Staffing, meanwhile, would likely remain neutral. While there would be the possibility for the reduction of one staffer, it would likely be offset by adding an additional bus driver. The impact on co-curriculars, however, isn’t as clear cut. While there may be more access to field and facility equity and an increase of offerings, for grade 5 students at Hinesburg, who historically have participated in athletics and other activities with the older students, would likely lose that opportunity. “And we know that there will probably be some community concern about the potential for required cuts on some of our most popular athletic teams in a consolidated environment,” Marckres said. A final presentation and draft recommendation is set to be provided to the board in mid-May. Read the story on VTDigger here: Champlain Valley School District weighs merger study. ...read more read less