By Guy Page
Danville residents turned out in huge numbers Saturday, December 7 and decisively defeated a petition that sought to close the high school in the small Caledonia County town.
The final vote was 75-480 against the petition, thereby opting to keep Danville High School open, the North Star Monthly reported this weekend.
Coverage is also available at WCAX and the Caledonian-Record.
The vote was held amid statewide discussion of closing or merging small schools via Act 73, passed by the Legislature this year to reduce school spending and improve student outcomes. Critics of Act 73 say it could lead to unwelcome, involuntary mergers of small rural schools. The School Redistricting Task Force last month recommended ”strategic,” voluntary-only school district mergers.
According to the report in the monthly community newspaper, more than 580 voters cast ballots during the special town meeting held in the school gymnasium, a turnout that filled the space with close to 1,000 people. Longtime Moderator Toby Balivet remarked that he had never seen so many people packed into the gym.
Danville High School currently enrolls 66 local students and 15 tuition students from other communities. If Danville High School was closed, it is likely that many local students would be tuitioned to neighboring high schools including Twinfield (located in Planfield), St. Johnsbury Academy, Lyndon Institute, and Hazen Union in Hardwick, and others.