PLYMOUTH, Vt. (AP) – With increasing talk about a push for cutting costs by consolidating school districts, some of Vermont’s tiniest schools are saying they perform well both academically and economically.

Plymouth Elementary School, Vermont’s smallest, has just 20 students ranging in age from kindergarten through sixth grade. It also has two teachers and a part-time principal.

That principal, Susan O’Brien, said Plymouth has “everything the bigger schools have. We have PE, we have health, we have a nurse, we have all of the therapies, we have special ed. Our children feel like they’re part of the family. Our teachers know them and know them well.”

She added that it costs less per pupil to educate the younger kids in Plymouth than to send the town’s older students to surrounding regional high schools.

“I think we’re very frugal,” O’Brien said. “One of the things that I strive for is economic sustainability. We only buy exactly what we need to buy. We’re very, very careful with our budget.”

As of the last academic year, Vermont had nine K-6 schools and three K-8 schools with student populations lower than 50.

Education Commissioner Richard Cate has sought to get Vermonters talking about consolidating some schools as a cost-saving measure. Lawmakers have been eyeing the implementation of a statewide school consolidation program in Maine.

Those who love Vermont’s small schools say they feature lots of interaction between students and teachers and, typically, a high degree of community involvement.

Jill Peck, assistant superintendent in the Essex-Caledonia district, said the 25-student Guildhall Elementary School is “a very family-oriented school.”

She said the school’s three teachers “are very much keeping in contact with parents in terms of sending curriculums home, sending progress reports home. There’s a lot of community involvement in extracurricular activities.”

In many towns, the school is the focal point of the community.

Anne Brown, chairwoman of the School Board in Plymouth, called the elementary school “the one institution in Plymouth that has a physical presence. We don’t have a village center. The school and school club have been a focal point for community gatherings.”

Eliza Ward, 84, who graduated from Plymouth Elementary in 1936, agreed. “I’m pushing to keep this school open,” she said. “Any help I can give them, I give them. If we give up our school, we might as well fold our town up. We’d hardly have anything.”

—

Information from: Rutland Herald, http://www.rutlandherald.com/

AP-ES-11-25-07 1009EST

Copy the Story Link