By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—At a special meeting on Tuesday, June 24, the Otter Valley Unified Union (OVUU) School Board received a presentation from the Board’s Facilities Committee concerning the possible expansion of the Otter Valley building to accommodate a separate, new wing for the Middle School.
The Facilities Committee was formed by the Board last fall to begin an assessment of the district’s facilities, to determine the scope of work needed to keep existing buildings in good repair and to propose additional facilities if needed. The members of the Facilities Committee are Laurie Bertrand (Committee Chair and Chair of the OVUU Board), Amber Lee, Natalie Steen, Lesley Bienvenue, Mike Markowski, Kevin Thornton, and Donna Wilson.
The Committee chose to begin by revisiting a proposal that had lost steam when the pandemic hit in 2020: the construction of a new Middle School. At the time, a community survey had indicated broad support for such a project among OVUU voters.
Currently, OV Middle and High Schools share a single building. The proposal is to construct a new wing that will house classrooms and a gymnasium specifically for the Middle School. The proposal also envisions a suite of new offices for RNESU administration, which would allow the Supervisory District to shed the Central Office building it currently uses on the campus of the old Training School.
The Committee engaged NBF Architects of Rutland to prepare two possible layouts for the new wing: Option 1, which expands the existing building southward and encroaches on existing athletic fields, and Option 2, which expands the existing building northward and leaves the athletic fields undisturbed.
Both options create classrooms dedicated to grades 6 through 8, since the proposal also contemplates moving grade 6 to the Middle School from the district’s three elementary schools.
The Committee’s presentation identified several considerations in favor of a new Middle School:
- Current facilities are overcrowded and inefficient
- There is roughly $10 million in deferred maintenance in the existing OV building
- The current Central Office is dated and removed from school operations
The Committee, the Board, and school administrators favored Option 2, which leaves the athletic fields untouched, expanding the building northward instead. Option 2 also moves the current kitchen and cafeteria, which are original to the 1960s building and need to be updated regardless. The new location on the west side of the building would make deliveries to the kitchen much easier. There would also be easier access to bathrooms from Markowski Field.
No dollar estimates were given for the project, as it’s still in the earliest phases of development. In a later conversation with The Reporter, Laurie Bertrand stated that it will be at least a year before the district seeks any bids on the project, and ground will not be broken for at least 5 years. The project will ultimately need to be funded largely through a school bond, to be approved by district voters.
Ms. Bertrand also made clear that the bond, if approved by voters, will be carried by the entire state and not just by OV residents, meaning that the impact of the bond on individual tax liabilities will not be as significant as a bond taken out by a town, for example. As is the case with school funding generally, the state collects education taxes from across Vermont into a single pool and disburses money to districts according to their approved budgets. If OV voters approve a bond for the Middle School, the cost of that bond would be carried by all Vermont taxpayers. According to Ms. Bertrand, this is how Winooski and Burlington are financing their new school facilities.
Ms. Bertrand also stated that the Committee and Board were especially eager to explore this expansion as a way to protect OVUU in the coming years, as Governor Scott has proposed consolidating Vermont’s 52 Supervisory Districts into just 5. Scott’s proposal would almost certainly necessitate the closure of smaller schools around the state.
“If we have plans in place to expand Otter Valley, the state is much more likely to keep OV open compared to smaller schools,” said Bertrand. “We’d rather have students come to us than have to send our students to Rutland or Middlebury. We want to be prepared for whatever comes down the pike.”
The OVUU Board is now on hiatus until August, said Bertrand. When the Board convenes again, it will begin reaching out to the community for feedback on the proposal, likely through public information sessions where OV voters can ask questions and express preferences before additional steps are taken.
