Hi Folk:
I would like to suggest that the school board publish the following in
the upcoming issue of Moretown Matters:

Harwood Assessment Issue

     When elected, school board members have certain authority vested in
them in accordance with V.S.A. Title 16.  This authority is also
specifically limited in certain areas. School board members in a union
high school district, for instance, do not have the authority to change
the method by which the high school budget is assessed to participating
towns unless confirmed by a positive vote of the citizens from each of
the participating towns (V.S.A. 16 § 706n).  When the Harwood school
board violated this statute in respect to the allocation of the 1998
Harwood budget, the Moretown School Board quite properly protested.
This protest was ultimately upheld by the Commissioner of Education
after consultation with Department of Education legal staff as well as
those of the Office of the Attorney General.  By this time two
additional budgets had been improperly allocated by the Harwood board.
They reverted to the proper allocation procedure for the 2001 Harwood
budget, but adopted the stance that there was no need to rectify the
improper allocations of the previous three years.  In his latest ruling
the Commissioner of Education recommended that this issue be resolved by
correcting the misallocation for only the most recent of the past three
years. The Harwood board have indicated a willingness to proceed in this
manner, and this may perhaps be a desirable solution. However, the
Moretown board’s position remains unchanged. The Harwood board lacks the
authority to make such a decision without a consenting vote of the
citizens of each of the participating towns.  It is up to the voters of
the towns of the WWSU to decide this issue, not the Harwood board or any
other school board, including the Moretown board, or for that matter,
any select boards.
       For the past three years the Harwood board has refused to warn
this issue for a determining vote from all its communities.  They still
do so.  Since protests and rulings have failed to accomplish anything,
the Moretown board has taken the difficult, but we feel necessary,
decision on behalf of our community, to withold from current year
Harwood assessment billings, the $100,000 which over the past 3 years
has been illegally billed to Moretown by the Harwood board.  These fund
are in an escrow account pending proper resolution of this issue.