Act 170 Hub Hartland, Weathersfield, West Windsor and Windsor

Act 170 of 2026

Vermont asked every school district to look at merging. These four towns decide by March 2028.

Act 170 does not order any district to merge. It sets up a local process, a timeline, and a vote. This page explains what the law requires, lays out the paths open to Hartland, Weathersfield, West Windsor and Windsor, and shows how to take part in the work.

See the paths What it would mean for my taxes

Where this stands, September 2026

Merger committees are being organized across Vermont through October. Windsor Southeast has not yet been assigned to a committee. Meeting dates and documents will be posted here as they are set.

540 days until Town Meeting Day, March 7, 2028.

What the law does

In late May 2026 the Legislature passed the next stage of Vermont’s education overhaul, and the Governor signed it as Act 170 (H.955). Lawmakers had the option of drawing a statewide map of new districts and assigning towns to it. They chose not to. The act instead sets up a local process: merger committees convened by regional facilitators, a year of public engagement, and town votes targeted for March 2028.

Alongside the merger work, the act creates regional service areas, called CESAs, for shared functions such as transportation and business services. It also sets a new statewide funding formula to begin in July 2029 if the conditions in the act are met. Several pieces, including much of the formula detail, are left for lawmakers to finish in the 2027 and 2028 sessions.

What the act does not do is order any district to merge. No district is assigned to another. A merger happens only if a committee proposes one and the voters of each town approve it.

The 750 student line

Act 170 singles out districts below a certain size. By November 1, 2029, the State Board of Education must give the Legislature the name of every school district whose average daily membership is under 750 students and that has not merged with a neighbor by July 1, 2028, along with recommendations on whether and how to merge it into a larger district.

Two details matter for reading that correctly. The 750 is average daily membership, the plain head count, not the weighted count used in the school tax formula. And the report is a set of recommendations to the Legislature, not an automatic merger. Acting on any of it would take a future act.

Separately, the law asks the regional facilitators who convene merger committees to aim for committees covering roughly 2,000 students where practical, and to try to keep districts under 750 from ending up isolated. That is the provision most likely to bring the Windsor Southeast into conversation with larger neighbors, whatever these towns eventually decide.

All three operating districts in the Windsor Southeast are under 750 on their own. Together they come to roughly 1,400. District level figures are being confirmed with the Agency of Education and will be posted with the enrollment worksheet.

The paths open to these towns

Four broad options are available. They are not equally likely, and none of them is settled. Working through them in public, and putting one in front of the voters, is what a merger committee is for.

The estimator covers the combinations inside the supervisory union in detail, because those are the ones with budget numbers behind them. A merger with a district outside the supervisory union would have its own numbers, and those do not exist yet.

Path 1 Modeled in the estimator , opens the estimator in a new tab

Merge the three districts in the supervisory union

The Windsor Southeast becomes one school district covering all four towns.

Hartland, Weathersfield and Mount Ascutney (Windsor and West Windsor) would form a single district of roughly 1,400 students. That clears the 750 line without involving any district outside the supervisory union. The four towns already share a supervisory union, a central office and a number of services.

What is known. This is the path with real budget numbers behind it, which is why the estimator models it year by year.

What is not settled. The terms. Articles of agreement, the size and makeup of the board, how seats are apportioned among the towns, what happens at each school building, and how high school choice is handled would all be written by the merger committee and voted on by the towns.

Scenario "MASD + HSD + WSD" in the estimator. , opens the estimator in a new tab
Path 2 Modeled in the estimator , opens the estimator in a new tab

Merge two of the three districts

A smaller combination inside the supervisory union, leaving one district out.

The estimator also models Mount Ascutney with Hartland, and Mount Ascutney with Weathersfield. Either combination is likely to clear the 750 line, though that should be confirmed against average daily membership rather than the weighted count used for taxes.

The district left out would remain under 750 on its own, and would still appear in the State Board’s November 2029 report.

Scenarios "MASD + HSD" and "MASD + WSD" in the estimator. , opens the estimator in a new tab
Path 3 Real, and likely to come up

Merge with a larger neighbor outside the supervisory union

A regional merger with districts such as Hartford or Mtn. Views (Woodstock).

This is a real path, and these towns should expect it to be raised. Act 170 asks regional facilitators to organize merger committees around roughly 2,000 students where practical, and to keep smaller districts from becoming isolated. In this corner of Windsor County the larger neighbors are districts such as Hartford and Mountain Views, which covers Woodstock and the towns around it.

A regional merger is the least predictable of the four. There are no budget numbers for it yet. Governance terms would be negotiated with communities that do not share a central office with the Windsor Southeast today, and the outcome would depend on what those communities want as much as on what these four towns want.

It is unlikely to be the first proposal on the table. It is not off the table either, and taking part in a regional conversation is likely no matter which path these towns eventually choose.

Not modeled. No budget numbers exist for a district that does not yet exist.

Path 4 Available, with a consequence

Stay as three districts

No merger. Each district continues exactly as it is today.

Act 170 does not force a merger, so this is a genuine option. The three districts would carry on as they are, each under 750 students.

The consequence is written into the act. Any district still under 750 that has not merged by July 1, 2028 is named in the State Board of Education’s report to the Legislature on November 1, 2029, with recommendations for merging it into a larger neighbor. What a future Legislature does with those recommendations is not decided. Districts that do not consolidate also do not qualify for the larger share of school construction aid the act reserves for those that do.

The estimator’s no merger baseline projects what staying as we are is expected to cost over the same years as the merger scenarios.

The "No merger" baseline in the estimator. , opens the estimator in a new tab

See what each path would mean for your tax bill

The estimator runs your own home value through the merger combinations inside the supervisory union and against no merger at all, year by year, using the districts' own budget numbers.

Open the estimator

The timeline the act sets

These dates come from the act itself and from the Agency of Education’s implementation schedule. Dates after the 2028 vote depend on decisions lawmakers have not made yet.

July 1, 2026
CESAs established
Regional service areas stand up for shared work such as transportation and business services.
September to October 2026 We are here
Merger committees organize
Regional facilitators convene committees and districts name their members. This is the stage Vermont is in now.
December 1, 2026
Construction aid report due
The Agency reports to the Legislature on the construction aid bonuses available to districts that consolidate.
2027 session
Implementation reports to the Legislature
Lawmakers take up the pieces Act 170 left unfinished, including much of the funding formula detail.
September to December 2027
Committee recommendations submitted
Each merger committee delivers its proposal, including draft articles of agreement, for the towns to weigh.
March 7, 2028 The vote
Town Meeting Day vote
Voters in each town decide on the proposal their merger committee has written.
July 1, 2028
Cutoff for the State Board report
Districts under 750 students that have not merged by this date are in scope for the report due in 2029.
July 1, 2029
Foundation formula takes effect
The new statewide funding formula begins, if the conditions set in the act are met.
November 1, 2029
State Board report on districts under 750
Every district still under 750 students is named to the Legislature, with recommendations for merging it into a larger neighbor.

How to take part

Every merger committee meeting is a public meeting. Agendas go up at least 48 hours ahead, minutes within five days of approval, and the documents the committee works from are posted here as they are produced.

Meetings

No meetings are posted yet. Dates, locations and remote links go up here as soon as a merger committee is seated for the Windsor Southeast.

Documents

Nothing is posted yet. Agendas, minutes and the material the committee works from are published here as they are produced.

Tell the committee what matters to you

A short survey, about three minutes. Responses go to the board and to the merger committee once it is seated, and a summary is posted on this page.

The survey opens when the merger committee is seated.

Sources and the record

Everything on this page comes from the act itself and from the Agency of Education’s published implementation material. The primary documents are linked below so that anyone can check any of it directly.

Act 170 as enacted legislature.vermont.gov The full signed text. Sec. 13 sets up the merger committees and Sec. 16a carries the 750 student report. Education Transformation education.vermont.gov The Agency of Education's own hub: CESAs, the foundation formula, class size minimums, construction aid and the full implementation schedule. H.955 bill status legislature.vermont.gov Every version, vote and committee action, including the Committee of Conference report both chambers adopted on May 29, 2026. What passed, in plain English vtdigger.org VTDigger's reporting on the reform, and on what lawmakers chose not to do.