No Decisions
In Parking Lots

It is my turn to set the record straight about the process used to develop the Hancock School budget. James Leno gave a one-sided, slanted account of this process in his recent letter to the editor.

First, at the Jan. 8 meeting at the Hancock School the Board was indeed in the middle of its budgeting process. The figures for closing the school that Supt. Tim Mock threw out were rough estimates off the top of his head and not definitive numbers as Leno implies.

Second, the reason this was not mentioned in those minutes is because according to Vermont's Open Meeting Law the only thing that needs to be captured in minutes is decisions that resulted in a vote. We were not trying to hide anything but didn't want to give false hope of budget savings when the numbers mentioned were rough estimates pulled from the air and were not backed up by documentation.

Thirdly, Leno acts as if he is the only champion of saving money for the taxpayers and this is ridiculous. The Board members are also taxpayers and we work diligently to provide the most cost effective education for our students and that option could include closing the school. In fact, the Board requested and received information on closing the school in a Feb. 5 memo from Ollie Jakob, finance officer for the Windsor Northwest Supervisory Union (WNWSU).

His conclusion was that the savings of approximately less than $4000 for closing didn't make this option feasible when weighed against the loss of control for tuitioning students. The reason the savings is not larger is because with no school, Hancock would lose the Small Schools Grant from the state. I double-checked this.

Fourth, I don't even know where to begin with addressing the April 22 meeting after the meeting in the parking lot that Leno refers to, where there was a decision made to have figures available at the next meeting, which was the budget revote of April 29. I guess there was no need for the Board to have wasted its time preparing for the vote on April 29 in a meeting that cost money to warn and make official. Maybe that is how we can save money—we can just make decisions in the parking lot with no need to follow the Open Meeting Law and warn meetings.

Fifth, Leno speaks about being fair to Supt. Mock and that the Hancock residents were not fair to him at the April 29 meeting.

Here are the facts:: Supt. Mock knew on April 22 from his parking lot meeting that he was going to prepare information on closing the school and tuitioning our children. That gave him one week to let the Board know he was doing this. This never happened.

Fact: the Board talked to Supt. Mock for about 10 minutes before the April 29 revote happened and he never mentioned he had new information he was going to share.

Fact: the Board helped Supt. Mock pass out copies of the warning and the budget but we never saw any other papers to pass out, nor were they on our table.

Fact: Supt. Mock works for the school boards of WNWSU, not the other way around, nor does he work for the Hancock selectboard.

Fact: the Hancock School Board was elected by the voters to review all options, make responsible decisions and present them to the town. How are we supposed to do what we were elected to do if we don't get all the facts from our employees?

Jill Jesso-White

Hancock School Board Chair

Village School Board Chair