Last of its kind: Vermont town weighs future of one-room schoolhouse

Each morning before school starts and after recess, Diane Nicholls rings the bell atop the snug one-room schoolhouse where she teaches.

“I don’t feel like I’m living in the 19th-century, but it is charming,” says Ms. Nicholls, who educates a group of 18 students in the Elmore School, Vermont’s last operating one-room schoolhouse.

The Elmore School, a public school serving students in grades one through three, is a cherished tradition in the tiny town of Elmore, with a population of under 1,000. Generations of students have attended since the school opened in the 1850s. Now, townspeople are wrestling with how best to support it.

Residents will vote March 1 on whether the town should withdraw from a joint school district with two other nearby towns in order to strike out on their own in hopes of preemptively preserving their schoolhouse. Concerns mounted after a district-commissioned report released in November 2020 proposed five cost-saving recommendations, with four out of the five options suggesting closing the Elmore School. 

Behind the ballot effort are questions that also play out in other rural areas: How much does a school contribute to a community’s identity? Is a local school such a crucial community hub that taxpayers are willing to pay higher costs to preserve it? 

“It’s difficult to say what forms the identity of a community, but we know these institutions like the Elmore Store, the school, are part of it, and we defend them as a proxy for defending the community,” says Trevor Braun, an Elmore resident and board member of the Elmore Community Trust, a nonprofit that recently raised $400,000 to ensure the town’s general store didn’t close. 

March 1 won’t mark the first time residents will vote on whether to form an independent school district. In December 2021 the town voted not to leave the joint district, Lamoille South Unified Union (LSUU), amid concerns that taxes might rise and unknowns over what forming an independent school district means. But enough townspeople signed a petition to bring the question back to the Town Meeting this week. 

Elmore sits on the edge of Lake Elmore, across from Elmore Mountain (all named after Colonel Samuel Elmore, who fought in the Revolutionary War, according to town history). The town is located 14 miles north of Stowe, a popular ski destination and home of the Trapp Family Lodge, known for its connection to the relatives portrayed in “The Sound of Music.”

Elmore consists of a short main drag with the school, the general store across the street, town hall, and one church. The population swells with seasonal summer residents. 

On a recent February morning, students in the cozy Elmore School classroom practiced nonfiction writing. A first grade student wrote about chickens, while a few desks over a third grader wrote about her favorite animal, polar bears. Kids write and draw on paper, with iPads handy on their desks to research questions. 

Colorful acrylic paintings of Lake Elmore in peak fall foliage decorate the class walls, one of the indications of the many traditions that students partake in. Each autumn students paint on the banks of the lake. On Fridays, families cook hot lunches for the students, and the class annually delivers Valentine’s Day cards to the post office boxes in the Elmore Store across the street.

“I remember my very first day here and I just really liked it,” says Ruby, a third grader, who says that now, as one of the oldest kids, she appreciates that “you can have friends younger than you and help them, and it’s fun to see and help them develop their skills.” 

Jon Osborne, an Elmore parent whose two children now attend college, says the Elmore School provided his kids with a “phenomenal” experience, including building a tight-knit group of friends who helped each other in the classroom.  

“From day one they were absorbing that sense of community that stays with them,” he says, during a stop at the Elmore Store to deliver maple syrup from his family business. “We have to keep the school going, not because it’s the last one-room schoolhouse in Vermont. Some people get hung up on that. As I understand it, it’s fiscally sustainable, and the kids who come out of it do good things in life.” 

The superintendent and school board of LSUU say they have no plans to close the Elmore School. The report that recommended closing was completed under a previous superintendent and done by an outside group without consideration of local culture, says LSUU superintendent Ryan Heraty. 

“The report was commissioned to look at capital improvement projects. It didn’t hit the mark on that, and it caused stress and anxiety,” says Mr. Heraty, who has spoken at local meetings with Elmore residents about the district’s intention to keep the school open. 

“That sense of independence, of local control, is very Vermont,” says Mr. Heraty. 

But even with the school district’s assurances, some residents are skeptical about putting the future of the treasured school in the hands of others. A recent kerfuffle with the United States Postal Service over halting service to the post office inside the Elmore Store raised townspeople’s hackles. In an effective show of civic activism, the town rallied elected leaders and pressured the USPS to reverse course. 

“The fear of [Elmore] school being at risk is so strong that people want to do whatever they can to maintain it. That says a lot about our community, but it’s tough not knowing what the outcome would be” of voting to leave the district, says Mr. Braun. He already voted by mail and skipped the school question, since he sees arguments for both sides and thinks there are too many unknowns. 

Much of the uncertainty stems from legal ambiguity under Act 46, a Vermont law passed in 2015 that controversially consolidated school districts to improve efficiencies and education outcomes. Under the act, districts could voluntarily combine or the state could force mergers. In 2015, Elmore voluntarily merged with schools in nearby Morristown. In 2018, the state forced nearby Stowe to join the district. Stowe is now trying to leave LSUU, which lawyers for the state education agency say is illegal. 

If Elmore were to leave LSUU, it’s unclear what would come next. Residents don’t know if the state would allow the town to revert to a previous agreement where older Elmore kids were allowed to attend their school of choice in other towns. Or the state might force the town to fully operate their own independent school district. (Another small Vermont locale offers a cautionary tale: In 2021 the town of Ripton voted to leave its school district but is now negotiating rejoining after the state said the town had to provide all the related services, like payroll and transportation.)

Research on the effectiveness of rural consolidations is slim and mixed, but consolidations are often controversial in towns poised to lose schools. Public school enrollment has been declining in Vermont for decades, and during the pandemic it dropped by another 5%, according to data from the state’s department of education. 

Inside The Elmore Store, where residents pop in and out to pick up mail and exchange town news, Kate Gluckman and Mike Stanley are settling in after moving from Mississippi to run the store for the Elmore Community Trust. They are enjoying the warm welcome from locals. 

Ms. Gluckman grew up in a neighboring Vermont town. The couple is still getting up to speed on the school independence vote. They were planning to listen to community members at a town forum and take their cues from the discussion. 

“I just want to support the community,” says Mr. Stanley. “If it’s what’s best for the community, I will vote for it.”