WESTMINSTER — The school board has been trying to close the Westminster West School for years.
In 2009, the budget was released for the West and Center schools, and we calculated that the West school cost about half as much to educate a child as the Center School. But the school board always complained that the West School cost too much.
The fight over the West school included changing the makeup from 1-2 and 3-4 grades, to K-1 and 2-3 so the kids who had been there for three years lost out on being the elders.
The school board placed the worst teachers in the West school after the 2009 fight, to the point where the children picketed and refused to go to school because of their out-of-control and unqualified teacher!
For some reason, even with the West school taken out of the budget, the town raised the school tax 23 percent on an unwarned Town Meeting vote.
That is extortion-level funding, and the vote is not in compliance with the Open Meeting Law in Vermont. Something is seriously wrong!
The attorney general needs to investigate this matter.