With another tough school budget season and higher school property taxes looming, the question of whether a merger between the Montpelier Roxbury Public School (MRPS) district and the Washington Central Unified Union district that operates U-32 Middle and High School could save taxpayers money is getting more attention, school officials say. But the potential tax savings, if any, won’t be known for some time, and any merger — if it occurs — would be years away.
“I think there is interest on both sides to talk about and figure out what that means and what the options are,” MRPS board chair Jim Murphy, speaking about a merger, told The Bridge in October. “It is getting talked about more as our financial and demographic challenges become increasingly real.”
The districts would have to form an exploratory study committee pursuant to state law on merging districts, Murphy said. It is possible this could happen later this school year, he said.
Washington Central School Board chair Flor Diaz Smith said she is interested in starting merger discussions “as soon as possible,” but recognized that both boards are currently wrapped up in budget decisions.
“Even if we start in January, studying a merger could take two years,” she said.
Merger advocates say combining the two districts could have academic advantages, such as the ability to offer more AP classes or a richer arts curriculum. On the other hand, only half as many students could play on varsity teams, critics note. But it is the finances of a potential merger that will likely play a dominant role in determining whether it happens.
Challenging Property Tax Picture
School property taxes are likely to jump again in both districts in 2025. The early word from the state Tax Department is that school property taxes will be going up 10% to 15% next year, on average. The state will offer a formal projection around Dec. 1.
Washington Central faces an especially challenging budget. An initial draft of the budget shows that inflationary pressures will push the district’s local education spending baseline budget up by 12.5% next year without any changes, according to Superintendent Steven Dellinger-Pate.
An increase of this magnitude would subject Washington Central to the state’s recently revived “excess spending penalty,” which hits districts with double taxation above a certain spending level per student. To avoid the penalty, the district will have to cut $2.4 million, which would reduce the budget increase to 5.4%, Dellinger-Pate said.
The MRPS district is also facing a “tough” budget year, but it currently spends less per pupil than Washington Central and is not expected to hit the excess spending threshold, according to MRPS Superintendent Libby Bonesteel. “It is not a concern for us, unless the school board wants to add a whole lot to the budget,” she said.
According to a chart shown to the MRPS School Board Nov. 6, MRPS now spends $13,754 per weighted pupil, compared to $14,380 at Washington Central. Harwood spends even more, at $15,250, while Barre comes in at just $11,036. The statewide average is $12,881.
Declining Student Enrollment
Most Vermont school districts have been seeing their student enrollment drop for some time, with the exception of a few districts such as South Burlington. According to the state Department of Education, the number of K–12 students in Vermont fell nearly 14% from 2003 to 2013. Since the state funds schools based on the number of students a district has, weighted for various factors, sliding student counts have an adverse financial impact on those districts seeing declines.
In recent years, Washington Central’s total enrollment has dropped from 1,432 in the 2021–22 school year to 1,325 in 2025–26, a 7.5% decline, according to information provided by Dellinger-Pate. This does not include the tuition student count, which fell from 55 to 41 over the same time period.
The MRPS student count has not dropped as much, with district student enrollment falling 2% in the same time period, from 1,145 actual students to 1,124 this school year. The district experienced a small enrollment increase this year, partially because of an influx of Afghan students.
Looking ahead, a recent study of MRPS trends predicted the student count could drop by 30 students in the next three years and by 75 students over ten years. Superintendent Libby Bonesteel said the numbers are relatively stable compared to some districts, and noted that they do not include possible increases as a result of new housing construction in Montpelier.
Dellinger-Pate said that a projection of future enrollment is still being updated for Washington Central, but added that declines are expected to continue in the near future and then hit a low and stabilize. Falling student numbers are expected to be most notable at the U-32 Middle and High School, where the current count of 700 students could drop to 602 in the 2031–32 school year, according to a presentation to the Washington Central school board on Oct. 1.
Student counts in both systems could decline further when a planned new Central Vermont Career Center is constructed. The center, serving students in 18 sending towns in the region, could be in operation as early as 2029, if things advance as planned, according to Career Center Superintendent Jody Emerson.
Currently, only half the students who apply are admitted to the current career center at Spaulding High School, where the students attend from 8:30 to 12:30 “before returning to their sending school or wherever they are going,” Emerson said.
If a new center is built, more students can attend the career center, and they will go for a full day, which amounts to fewer students at Montpelier High School and U-32, she said. This year, 60 U-32 students and 28 Montpelier High students are attending the tech center. How the shift will affect funding “depends on the difference in tuition between their school and mine,” Emerson said.
The career center would like to build a new 150,000 square foot school on 20 acres. It is looking at several possible locations in Barre, Barre Town, Berlin, and East Montpelier, she said. Area voters could be asked to bond for the new building in March 2026.
Small Schools, Flooding Risks
Last year, MRPS decided to close its small elementary school in Roxbury to save money, but the Washington Central school board decided Oct. 1 to keep open its small elementary school in Worcester, which has 68 students, and in Calais, which has 87 students. Operating small schools is generally more expensive.
At that same meeting, one Washington Central school board member who supported closing the schools and favored merging with Montpelier, Zach Sullivan, said he thought the small schools could be an obstacle.
“If I was a school board member in Montpelier, I don’t know if I would vote [to join] another district that’s coming in with a bunch of tiny schools, unless I had the power to shut them down on day one,” he said.
If Washington Central’s challenges — higher per pupil spending than MRPS, a student count declining faster than that of MRPS, and its small schools — could make MRPS think twice about merging, there is another factor that deserves its own consideration: the Montpelier High School’s susceptibility to flooding.
In July 2023, the school’s basement was flooded, although the first floor stayed dry. Bonesteel said the district has made some changes to the building, such as moving electrical panels up from the basement, but it cannot make the school flood proof without spending as much or more as it would cost to build a new school.
Last spring, a report from Burlington-based consultant TruexCullins suggested MRPS build a new school on higher ground nearby at a cost of $110 million. School board chair Murphy said the board has not discussed the proposal seriously since the presentation. Bonesteel said the district has had feedback that “a new high school is not something some people think the community can sustain.”
If a merger occurs, one commonly mentioned scenario is that all high school students would go to U-32 and middle school students could go to the current Montpelier High School. But would Washington Central want to get involved with a school subject to flooding or that might need replacement?
Of course, other merger scenarios that don’t include the Montpelier High School are possible, but Bonesteel noted they might involve moving school boundaries. For example, some Union Elementary School students could be shifted to another school, which some MRPS families might object to, she noted.
The merger question is a complex and controversial one and answering it will take time and community input. And the question could soon get even more complicated.
Dellinger-Pate said the Twinfield Union School, which serves Plainfield and Marshfield, has indicated they might like to be included in any merger discussions involving MRPS and Washington Central.
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