This story by Tracy Brannstrom was first published in The Bridge on Nov. 11
After several months of discussion, board members of the Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools (MRPS) will be voting on whether to keep the Roxbury Village School for educational programming or to offer a $1 sale of the building to the town of Roxbury. The board will take it to a vote at its Nov. 20 meeting.
The Roxbury school was closed last fall and remains mostly unused, with the district paying $145,000 to maintain it and run an after-school program in part of it. The building is also used as the Roxbury Town Hall.
The school district recently distributed a survey among Montpelier and Roxbury residents to better understand what community members want to see happen with the building. Although just 293 people responded, the majority said they’d like to see the district offer a sale of the building to the town to save money for the district, as well as potentially decrease taxes and provide a community space for Roxbury residents.
The survey also included two options for district ownership, including use of the building for various educational purposes, which the board discussed in some depth during recent board meetings, or to simply keep running a part-time after-school enrichment program in the building.
All three options are still on the table, said MRPS Superintendent Libby Bonesteel.
Per the merger agreement, the school district can keep the building if it identifies a financially feasible educational use for it. If it cannot, it must offer it to Roxbury for $1 — the same amount the district paid the village of Roxbury for the building during the 2017–18 merger of the Roxbury School District and the Montpelier School District under Act 46.
The Roxbury select board said at its Nov. 4 meeting that if the town received an offer, it would put the decision to voters on Town Meeting Day in March.
A real estate transaction between the school district and town of Roxbury would take some time, and most likely the district would need to budget for upkeep of the building in the coming year, according to Bonesteel at the board’s Nov. 6 meeting.
The board will vote on how to proceed at its Wednesday, Nov. 20 meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Montpelier High School and also virtually.
Read the story on VTDigger here: School board weighs $1 sale of Roxbury Village School to town.