by Don Keelan

A few weeks ago, I went to Arlington Memorial High School’s gymnasium for the Annual Town Meeting. In the hallway leading to the gym, I saw rows of cabinets housing countless trophies and photos of AMHS teams’ winning events dating back generations.

It was time for me to stop gazing; the meeting was being called to order. Tradition holds that our area’s two state representatives are given the opportunity to address the assembly. Rep. Rob Hunter, who serves on the House Education Committee, spoke after Rep. Kathleen James. 

Rob commented on the spiraling cost of education, declining enrollment, the various proposals, and maps to consolidate Vermont’s 119 school districts and their accompanying supervisory unions. He took a few questions. 

I asked him, “Three years from now, will we still have a high school building to come to for Town Meeting?” Rob gave an honest answer; he did not know. I, along with many in the assembly, believed him. Nevertheless, his response was not encouraging as to the future status of our Town’s high school.

I can only imagine what a member of our school’s faculty or staff must be contemplating—is there a future for me here in Arlington, or should I look for employment elsewhere? And from a school leader’s perspective, how does one maintain high standards in teaching, morale, and staff recruitment when the school’s future is in doubt? 

Geographically, AMHS sits approximately 10 and 13 miles from Manchester and Bennington, respectively. Over a hundred years ago, prior to 1922, Arlington youngsters would board the train and either go to school in Manchester or Bennington. If in three years, the school were to close, where would the 110 students (2024 census) go to high school, and would their families have a choice?

Arlington has a population of approximately 2,500, and its high school class census has declined, as has that of many other Vermont communities. The school continues to be the town’s principal social center. AMHS’s athletic events are known state-wide. The school’s soccer, basketball, and baseball games attract large crowds year after year. The same is true when cultural, musical, and dramatic events take place. For future AMHS youngsters, the question will be: if enrolled in a school with a population of 1,000 or more, will the Arlington student have a chance to be recognized, perform, and excel? 

For homeowners considering listing their home for sale, what should they say to a potential purchaser when asked about the town’s high school? Does the homeowner disclose that the school may be a candidate for closure and that your children will need to be bused a dozen miles, either to the north or south? Or better yet, just stay ignorant.

What is painfully missing from all the discussion coming out of Montpelier’s committees, commissions, bureaucrats, and politicians is exactly what the cost savings of each of the plans recently put forward are, or is there a plan at all?

Vermonters have been down this road before when major legislation was adopted for housing, education (Act 60), healthcare, Act 250 reforms, and climate change. There was a rush to institute so-called reform, but the related financial calculations were conspicuously absent.  The order of the day was to get the mergers/consolidations/closings in place, and we will address the financial impact at another time.

A few years from now, if the closing were to take place, I can just hear the questions from Arlington’s students who attend Fisher Elementary, across the road from AMHS: “I wonder what they are going to do with that big building sitting empty up on the hill?”

The cost of operating public schools in Vermont has been “a runaway train,” and no one seems to be able to get on board to control it. However, cost also comes in other forms that are not necessarily quantifiable in dollars and cents.  

Back to the trophies and photos that AMHS has collected over the generations. The school has some time, not a great deal, to decide how they might wish to dispose of them. Suggestion: begin passing them on to the descendants of those pictured, and the trophies to the town’s historical society. One can never tell, in the future, Arlington may require a local high school.