The prospect of an all-new Woodstock Union High School and Middle School (WUHS/MS) serving as a “hub” facility for the region following anticipated statewide redistricting has taken a big step towards reality.
Voters in the seven-town Mountain Views School District (MVSD) handed MVSD administrators, teachers, families, and students a significant gift in Town Meeting balloting on Tuesday. They okayed a proposed $111.9 million bond issue to rebuild WUHS/MS from the ground up over the next three years by a vote of 1,648 to 1,047.
School officials breathed a huge sigh of relief Wednesday morning as the bond vote tally was finalized. Town clerks and ballot-count observers from Barnard, Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock all gathered at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning at the MVSD administrative offices adjacent to the current WUHS/MS in West Woodstock for the counting of the bond votes.
By 10 a.m. Wednesday, the results were official: the $111.9 million bond proposal that MVSD officials had crafted with conditions that would save taxpayers $15 million dollars versus the $99 million rebuild bond that was rejected by school district voters 55%-45% in March 2024, passed 61.2% to 38.8% this time.
“Yesterday’s positive bond vote is a recognition by voters of the vibrance of our schools and the power of district collaboration,” MVSD superintendent Sherry Sousa told the Standard as she and other school district officials and community activists celebrated the favorable bond vote late Wednesday morning. “Our voters have affirmed that their children deserve as healthy a school building as they do a superior academic program. Innovation is a hallmark of MVSU, whether addressing literacy and math proficiencies or heralding new educational governance structures, such as Boards of Collaborative Educational Services (BOCES). With this confirmation by our community, I continue to be appreciative, honored, and proud to be MVSU’s Superintendent,” Sousa added enthusiastically.
For more on this, please see our March 5 edition of the Vermont Standard.
