A little history: In the spring of 2015 the Vermont Legislature passed Act 46, a school consolidation law, âdesigned to encourage and support local decisions and actions.â This quote is from an Agency of Education (AOE) fact sheet. There were five goals to this law: equity; achieve or exceed the stateâs Educational Quality Standards; maximize operational efficiencies; promote transparency and accountability; delivered at a cost that parents, voters and taxpayers value. Most of our area legislators voted against the law but those who voted for it thought that we would not be merged and that there was an exit from merger. Act 46 had two other important provisions. If an area did not want to merge, they could create and present an Alternative Governance Structure (AGS) proposal to the Board of Education (BOE). This was done including many representatives from all of the five towns (at this point Vernon was still with us). The committee included school board members, past board members, teachers and many members of the five communities.