Harwood Union High School in Duxbury in August 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger School districts across the state have been assigned to new groups to consider mergers after 13 districts requested changes ahead of groups’ first meetings, set to happen in the coming weeks.  Those r equests, school board leaders say, are representative of districts exercising local control early in a process they say is still muddied by unknowns.  The new assignments announced Friday group the state’s 119 districts into 18 committees. The arrangement is different than previously outlined under this year’s sweeping education reform law, Act 170, which divided districts into 20 committees.  The new groupings grant districts’ requests, according to a press release from the Vermont Learning Collaborative, an educational services agency hired by the state to facilitate the committees.  “These groupings reflect a starting point, not a final decision,” the press release said. School board leaders can provide their input on the changed committees until Sept. 23, according to the release, which sets a Sept. 25 goal to finalize the groups.  While school districts are not mandated to merge with each other under this year’s law, they are required to participate in study committees in “good faith” — just one of the law’s provisions that school board leaders say has yet to be defined.  The change in assignments comes just weeks before committees are expected to hold their first meetings, which must occur by Oct. 15.  A regional facilitator hired by the Vermont Learning Collaborative is set to helm the committees within a region. Those seven facilitators are instructed to remain impartial as they help districts interpret guidance from the state.  A single statewide lead facilitator, Younce, is tasked with overseeing the seven regional leaders.  Facilitators have so far been charged with interpreting ambiguities in the state’s mandate, according to Younce, and were tasked with reviewing districts’ committee reassignment requests. Vermont’s effort to consider district and school consolidation comes as states across the country face declining enrollment, according to News From the States, a national news site. Preliminary data shows that more than 1,000 public schools closed nationwide during the 2025-26 school year, the site reported.  A list of requests  Flor Diaz Smith, president of the Vermont School Boards Association, said in an interview this week that she wasn’t surprised districts requested to change committees before work gets underway. It’s emblematic of school boards wanting local control in the fast moving process, she said.  Although all school districts were assigned to a study committee by the Legislature, Act 170 gave districts the authority to request a reassignment with their school board’s approval.  The law says that districts in a committee should collectively enroll at least 2,000 students, and districts can only move to committees that are geographically adjacent to their assigned committee.  “‘Thumbs up’ is kind of the default for me, unless it violates the law,” Younce said in an interview last week, because it’s early on in the process.  Younce declined to say which 13 school districts submitted requests to him.  One district, Harwood Union Unified School District, requested a committee reassignment because it was originally grouped with schools in the Barre and Montpelier area, which board members said were more urban and separated from Warren and Waitsfield by a mountain range, according to the Waterbury Roundabout.  Instead, the district was more interested in merger conversations with Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District, the news site reported.  The new committee assignments announced Friday reflect changes like the one requested by Harwood.  Along with making requested changes, facilitators had to shuffle districts to keep committees above the law’s 2,000 student threshold, the press release said, which resulted in two fewer districts.  Facilitators also had to accommodate the requests of districts that wanted to be paired with others in their county, according to Younce. Those four districts appear to be in Franklin County, based on the list of new committees.  Diaz Smith said earlier this week that she isn’t surprised that districts want to change committees so early on.  “Because the process is different from a completely mandatory merger, some districts might try to preserve as much local agency at the very beginning,” Diaz Smith said.  The fact that it’s an election year adds uncertainty to the process, Diaz Smith explained.  Gov. Phil Scott previously advocated for a forced merger process, until he compromised with legislators who characterized the idea as politically impossible. With the governor up for reelection in November, Vermont could see a new executive leader — along with new legislators.  “Who gets elected for governor is going to have a big impact,” Diaz Smith said.  Upcoming Deadlines While the uncertainty of an election looms, committees are instructed to begin work under a tight timeline — and now in new groups. Under Act 170, school districts will vote on mergers on Town Meeting Day in 2028.  But they’ll have to meet a number of deadlines before then.  Facilitators must submit a report to the state on Feb. 1 with an update on committee work, Younce said. Then each study committee has to submit a final report to the state in September 2027 detailing which of its members — if any — are merging.  As committees get underway, Younce said their meetings will run like local school board meetings. They will be open to the public, with minutes and agendas posted online.  The regional facilitators, who will help districts make the best decisions they can with informed data, are paid $150 an hour, with a $50,000 limit for the entire committee process, according to Younce.  Younce said that committees will begin work with districts mapping their assets, such as school buildings, buses, extracurricular activities and technical education programs. Then, districts will begin thinking about resources they want but don’t have, Younce said.  Identifying what districts both have and want will direct districts’ decisions, he said.  It’s still unclear though how districts should decide about merging, Diaz Smith said. She said the Vermont Agency of Education needs to issue more guidance on how to collect and understand data — and how that data should guide districts’ decision making.  Definitions desired  Parts of Act 170 remain unclear for school boards, according to Diaz Smith Younce said that in his conversations with state authorities, “it’s become clear” that any undefined parts of the law are up to the facilitators to determine.  For example, Younce said he’s in the process of refining a standard for what “good faith” participation means. He’s been consulting with lawyers and state officials and aims to publicly announce statewide guidance by the end of September. Act 170 also says that school districts will have committee representation that’s proportional to the number of students enrolled in their district. But the law doesn’t specify what proportional membership should look like.  Younce, though, said committees will have options and the ability to exercise discretion.  To start, school boards will appoint only one member each to a study committee, Younce said. Then each study committee will decide its own respective approach to achieving proportional membership, he added.  Younce anticipates two common models will emerge. Committees that start with more members, meaning they represent more districts, may limit their size and instead make each member’s vote weighted based on their district’s student population.  Alternatively, committees that have fewer districts may want multiple representatives from each district. In that case, the number of members would be proportional to the student size of each district, Younce said.  Diaz Smith said that her organization has been fielding many questions from school boards on proportional representation. She said she just wants “ clear guidance on how things would work.” Read the story on VTDigger here: School districts assigned to new merger discussion groups. ...read more read less