“We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation”The House Education Committee will hold a public hearing on S.122 on Tuesday evening, April 4, 2017. The hearing will be held in room 11 at the State House in Montpelier from 5:30-7:30 PM.Witnesses may begin signing up at 5 PM for time to speak. Testimony will be limited to three minutes per person with witnesses speaking in the order of sign up. The Committee will also accept written testimony. Testimony and questions may be directed to:
802-828-2258
This is an important opportunity for boards and members of the public to share information that can assist the House Education Committee as they consider the changes the Senate has suggested and whether or not to accept those changes and whether or not to make additional changes themselves.
This is an important hearing. Testifying is easy. Consider writing out your three minutes of testimony, and also consider framing it the form of a suggestion. What could the legislature do that would make the job of improving opportunities for students easier? If you do plan to come up and testify, please send me an email or text to let me know so I can plan to meet up with you.
Important Wardsboro Meeting also happening on April 4th:
Wardsboro has scheduled a re-vote on the Dover/Marlboro/Wardsboro Act 46 merger articles to be held on May 1, 2017. The board has warned the following meetings:
April 4, 2017 @ 6:30 p.m. at Wardsboro Elementary School – regularly scheduled school board meeting which will be attended by Brad James and Donna Russo-Savage from the Agency of Education. Brad is a long time AOE staffer and Donna literally wrote Act 46 when she was employed as one of the lawyers for the legislature. This will also be a good opportunity for Wardsboro residents to get answers to questions they have prior to the re-vote.
April 24, 2017 @ 6:30 p.m. at the Wardsboro Town Hall (public forum specifically for Act 46 reconsideration vote)
An abundance of information, previously posed questions and answers, and the proposed merger articles can be found at http://wcsu-committee.blogspot.com/
This past week the House passed the tax bill unanimously – raising virtually no new taxes, but banking on increased enforcement for a small amount of funding. There was nearly unanimous support for the budget which increased by 1%. The budget was largely uncontroversial with the exception of a study on education spending. Rep. Heidi Scheuermann from Stowe and I, both proponents of property tax reform, spoke at length in opposition to this proposed study which calls for identification of cost drivers in education and legislative proposals to address the cost drivers. Rep. Scheuermann spoke to dozens of studies which have been done on cost drivers in the past and called for action on the funding formula. I spoke to the statutory definitions that make per pupil spending the definition of equity of opportunity called for in Brigham and also called for action on the funding formula. Our request to strike the study received tri-partisan support but was was ultimately defeated 86-42.
Thank you to all who have been contacting me on issues impacting or interesting you individually and our communities collectively. I want to take a moment to share a few thoughts on particular bills I have heard from a number of folks on:
H.422 An act relating to removal of firearms from a person arrested or cited for domestic assault. This bill passed the House 78-67. This bill was initially troubling for me. I am a strong supporter of our Constitution, but also know very well the danger and unpredictability in domestic violence situations. Ultimately I voted against this measure because the law basically changed only one thing, whether or not a judge was contacted prior to removing a firearm after a crime had been committed which did not convince me made anyone safer and did infringe on due process for the accused.
H.170 An act relating to possession and cultivation of marijuana by a person 21 years of age or older. Voters may recall I voted against last years (very different) marijuana legislation. I’m convinced legalization will happen, but as long as it is still illegal federally, Vermont legislation needs to thoroughly consider taxation, regulation, impaired driving and youth prevention in order for me to consider voting for it. This past week H.170 came to the floor for a vote. I made a motion to send it to the Human Services Committee for additional considerations on youth prevention, which was agreed to. My sense is the bill may yet emerge for a vote in the House. If a vote passes the House it is expected to pass the Senate which overwhelming approved last years bill.
H.316 An act relating to renewable energy goals for Vermont’s total energy consumption. This legislation seeks to put Vermont’s renewable energy goals into law, that is that we will provide 90% of our energy by renewable resources by 2050. I am not opposed to this legislation, which was also introduced in the Senate. The bill is in my committee for consideration this year or next, along with about 30 other bills. We have taken zero testimony on this bill, and that will definitely happen prior to us taking it up. Given that the session is 3/4 over, the chances for this bill this year are pretty slim. I was surprised to be contacted by a number of constituents asking me for action on this bill, notifying me that VPIRG had been persistently contacting them and urging them to contact me. VPIRG is the largest nonprofit consumer and environmental advocacy organization in Vermont. They are in the statehouse every single day, and in my committee more days then not. To the best of my knowledge, they never even asked our Committee Chair, never mind me, if he would take this legislation up this year. VPIRG does some good work including grassroots outreach. Unfortunately, this is not my first experience with them misleading my constituents – unnecessarily I might add. Thank you to the folks who reached out to me to ask me about this!
We are starting to hear talk of coming back in October to address federal impacts on the Vermont budget. There may be significant impacts to healthcare, education and environmental programs. As soon as more is known definitively, I will share that information.
I am honored to represent you in the Vermont Legislature. In order to do so effectively, I need to hear from you about ideas, issues or opportunities. My cell phone is 802-384-0233 and my email is lhsibilia@gmail.com.
Please stay in touch, and stay engaged,
from Dover, Readsboro, Searsburg, Somerset, Stamford, Wardsboro,
I have had to turn multiple campaign contributions away because as your independent state representative I continue to choose not to accept support from special interests, political parties or political action committees.
place in the Valley. This post includes links to the law, guidance from the AOE, and updates from other parts of Vermont, and so I am posting it again to maintain that link to information for voters, taxpayers and parents. Readers may have recently read in this past weeks Deerfield Valley News that the draft articles of agreement submitted by the WSSU have been sent back for further development. I have been in touch with the Agency of Education, the Vermont School Boards Association and elected and contracted supervisory leadership regarding next steps for the districts. There are significant untapped resources that are still available to provide assistance to the districts as they work to comply with the requirements of Act 46. I am working to help the supervisory union’s districts access them. Please stay involved in these historic and important conversations about the future of education in the valley.
I have been out making my way through the district, and have also scheduled additional times for voters to talk with me in person. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and also tell me about issues or priorities you, your business or your town may have.
Act 46, the “Unification” plan for school districts was passed during the 2015 session and its general premise was to reduce inequities across the state by asking individual districts that operate the same grades, to partner with their neighbors and form bigger units. If you and I join our school boards together, now your students and my students become “our students” and we will ensure that “our students” have the same opportunities. There are obvious questions here about why the massive increases in education spending spurred by Act 60 did not fix the inequity of opportunity problem that spawned the Brigham lawsuit. While that discussion has by no means ended, it is not the subject of this column. With this update I intend to provide parents, residents (full time and weekend) and businesses with information about how to keep track of the Act 46 education reform which is taking shape through our valley.
