The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 16 : Education

Chapter 011 : UNION SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Subchapter 002 : EXPLORATION, FORMATION, AND ORGANIZATION

• § 715. Organizational meeting; notice; business to be transacted

  (a) Meeting. The union school district shall hold an organizational meeting within 60 days after the Secretary of State files the certified copy of the recorded certification with each clerk pursuant to subsection 713(e) of this chapter.

  (b) Notice.

  (1) The Secretary of Education shall prepare and execute a warning for the organizational meeting. The warning shall give notice of the day, hour, and location of the meeting and shall itemize the business to be transacted.

  (2) The Secretary of Education shall transmit the signed warning to the superintendent, who shall post the warning in at least one public place in each town within the union school district and shall cause the warning to be published once in a newspaper of general circulation in the towns within the union school district. Posting and publication shall be made not more than 40 days nor less than 30 days before the date of the meeting.

  (3) The union school district shall bear the cost of posting and publishing the warning.

  (c) Business to be transacted.

  (1) The Secretary or a person designated by the Secretary shall call the organizational meeting to order and the registered voters shall consider the following items of business:

  (A) Elect a temporary presiding officer and a temporary clerk of the union school district from among the voters present at the organizational meeting.

  (B) Adopt Robert’s or other rules of order, which shall govern the parliamentary procedures of the organizational meeting and all subsequent meetings of the union school district.

  (C) Elect a moderator of the union school district from among the voters.

  (D) Elect a clerk of the union school district from among the voters or vote to authorize the school board to appoint a clerk of the union school district from among the voters.

  (E) Elect a treasurer of the union school district or vote to authorize the school board to appoint a treasurer of the union school district. The treasurer may also be the supervisory union treasurer and need not be a resident of the union school district.

  (F) Determine the date and location of the union school district’s annual meeting, which shall be not earlier than February 1 nor later than June 1, if not previously determined by the voter-approved articles of agreement.

  (G) Determine whether compensation shall be paid to the moderator, clerk, and treasurer of the union school district elected at the organizational meeting and at subsequent annual meetings of the union school district and, if so, the amount to be paid to them.

  (H) Determine whether compensation shall be paid to members of the union school district board and, if so, the amount to be paid to them.

  (I) Establish provisions for payment by the union school district of any expense incurred or to be incurred by or on behalf of the district for the period between the date on which the voters approved formation of the union school district and the first annual meeting of the union district.

  (J) Determine whether to authorize the initial board of the union school district to borrow money pending receipt of payments from the Education Fund by the issuance of its note payable not later than one year from the date of the note. Regardless of whether the voters provide this authorization, the initial board is authorized to borrow sufficient funds to meet pending obligations until the voters approve a budget for the initial year of operation pursuant to subdivision 716(b)(3) of this chapter.

  (K) Transact any other business, the subject matter of which has been included in the warning, that the voters have power to transact at any annual or special meeting and transact any nonbinding business that may legally come before the voters.

  (2) When there is only one nominee for temporary presiding officer, temporary clerk, moderator, district clerk, or district treasurer, the voters may, by acclamation, instruct an officer to elect the nominee by casting one ballot, and upon the ballot being cast, the nominee shall be legally elected and shall thereupon be sworn.

  (3) The elected officers listed in subdivisions (1)(A) (temporary presiding officer and temporary clerk), (C) (moderator of the union school district), (D) (clerk of the union school district), and (E) (treasurer of the union school district) of this subsection shall be sworn in before entering upon the duties of their offices and a record made by the district clerk. They shall assume office upon being sworn in. The officers listed in subdivisions (1)(C), (D), and (E) of this subsection shall serve terms as set forth in section 735 (unified union school districts; officers) or 753 (union elementary and union high school district; officers) of this chapter unless the voters extend the term length up to three years.

  (4) Any member of the union school district board not sworn in before the organizational meeting pursuant to section 714 of this chapter may be sworn in at or after the organizational meeting. (Added 2021, No. 176 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. June 7, 2022.)