Voters in Orwell will head to the polls on Tuesday to decide whether they want to form a unified union school district with the other towns in the Addison Rutland Supervisory Union.
In April, the five other towns in the supervisory union agreed to become the Slate Valley unified union school district. Orwell was the only town where the measure failed.
After a petition to reconsider was filed, voters will get another chance to decide. Superintendent Ron Ryan says the school districts will merge if a majority of Orwell voters support it this time:
“If they say 'no' what that would mean is that we would have to start over again. And that would mean we would form a new Act 46 study committee,” Ryan said.
That committee would have to come up with a new plan for a merger, this time without the benefits promised under the accelerated merger plan of Act 46.
