What Next for GMTCC Project?
by AJ de Saint Phalle

The Green Mountain Technology & Career Center's expansion project was
rejected by 70% of the voters in a special election held on Wednesday,
December 8. A total of 823 registered voters turned out in the six
voting towns of Belvidere, Cambridge, Eden, Hyde Park, Johnson and
Waterville, to cast their ballots and determine the fate of the proposed
$14,697,360 construction project.
After the polls closed at 7 p.m., ballot boxes were brought to the the
Lamoille Union High School library, where they were consolidated and
counted together, eliminating the possibility of knowing the margins in
any one specific town. It was at 8:15 p.m. that District 18 Clerk Lois
Brown announced the bond had been defeated with 578 opposed and 245 in
favor.
The effort to find a solution to the Tech Center's problems began in
1993 with some preliminary drawings. According to current LNSU
Superintendent, Dr. Terry Bailey, "By the time I arrived upon the scene
as Director in 1999, the project was on the burner. The very first time
I toured the facility, teachers spoke of the the need for renovations."
During the following five years, Bailey worked toward the goal of
rejuvenating the aging facility, changing its name to its current title,
the Green Mountain Technology and Career Center. Over the last two
years, Bailey worked closely with architect John Hemmelgarn, of Black
River Design, spending a total of $20,000 from the school's operating
budget to produce the detailed plan, which included a 42% contribution
from the state totaling $6,124,597, and leaving the remaining $8,572,763
to be paid via an increase in property taxes in the 16 sending towns.
The Tech Center's current director, Joe Teegarden, said he felt that the
community had not properly understood what was at stake, despite his
efforts to get the word out and answer questions during the weeks
leading up to the bond vote. Teegarden appeared before six school
boards, at least four select boards, and held public meetings in
Cambridge, Johnson and Hyde Park. He explained that he had only seen
about 100 people attend all those meetings, with only three to five
people attending each of the public meetings. He also appeared in a 53
minute long access television show with Dr. Bailey and architect
Hemmelgarn which aired numerous times on Adelphia channel 15 in Johnson,
Hyde Park and Morrisville as well as on Stowe Cable 37 in Jeffersonville
and Cambridge. He also recorded a radio spot which aired many times a
day on WLVB. Two separate mailings went out to residents during the two
weeks prior to the vote, and yet less than 10% of the legal voters in
the six voting towns actually voted.
Asked why he thought the bond had been defeated, Teegarden said it was
hard to tell for sure, but he had heard anecdotally of specific
individuals questioning the overall cost and the inclusion of nearly
$3,000,000 for the Hazen piece. He said some people told him that they
had not received either of the two mailings.
As for the project's status now, in the wake of the vote, Teegarden
said, "We are getting feedback in dribs and drabs and we will be getting
together after Christmas to develop a strategy. The bottom line is that
the facility is an aging structure that needs to be renovated.
"Our student population has doubled in the last six years, going from
100 kids in 1998 to 205 kids in 2004."
He went on to identify a list of issues which must be resolved,
including: restrooms which are not handicapped accessible, classroom
overcrowding, a generally drab and dreary environment, the need to
separate the "heavy" technology labs which produce fumes from the
"light" technology labs, and the situation at Hazen Union where the high
school is looking to take over the space currently occupied by the Tech
Center's Forestry and Land Management program.
"We need to find a way to match the needs of the Tech Center with the
needs of the community. It is a challenge because our funding is not
well understood. This was the first vote since the state stopped funding
100% of the costs. I believe other tech centers will have this problem,
especially when few towns vote and many towns pay," noted Teegarden.
Teegarden stated that the Tech Center's Regional Advisory Board would
have to approve any new proposal, and that the state would also have to
review their participation. The District 18 School Board would then need
to approve a new bond warning, which would need to be in effect for 30
days prior to any new vote. This means that a new plan would have to be
approved and the bond warning issued by the end of January to make a new
vote at Town Meeting possible.
Clearly one of the obstacles the bond faced was public confusion in the
face of what everyone involved admits is a complex situation. The Tech
Center serves students in 16 towns and is funded separately from the
Lamoille Union Middle and High Schools, yet is governed by their board.
The Regional Advisory Board theoretically represents the taxpayers in
the 16 towns, but has no governing authority.
We asked Dr. Bailey if he thought changing all of that might help voters
to see the situation more clearly and allow them to feel like they had a
say in whether or not their taxes were to be increased? He said that it
would require a lengthy, laborious process that would most likely be
expensive and take at least two years to complete. He indicated that
Bennington had recently gone through the process of creating a new
school district just for their vocational center, but that it was too
early to tell whether it had simplified the situation or not.
"I would rather focus on helping the kids who are in school right now,
who are moving along in their lives, not on changing laws," said Bailey.
"What we need is input from the community as a whole. Are they against
any tax increase, period? Or are there things we can do to make it
palatable? I think we have an opportunity here to get people to think
regionally, instead of just locally. It may require more of a direct,
grassroots effort to explain the project to people. We may need to go
door-to-door."