Safety concerns lead to sharp decline in using schools as Vt. polling places

November 4, 2024 | By Tova Brickley | Community News Service 

Watching adults vote can educate children, but fewer Vermont students may be getting the opportunity to see democracy in action this Election Day.

Waterbury voters will cast ballots at Brookside Primary School on Election Day. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Since 2016, the number of Vermont schools serving as polling places has decreased by more than half. That’s according to a comparison of polling places by Community News Service based on data from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office.

This Election Day, 41 schools will serve as polling places, down from 102 schools eight years ago.

It’s not entirely clear what’s behind the trend. Sue Ceglowski, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said neither her group nor the Vermont Superintendents Association had any data on the topic.

With many Vermonters now voting by mail, it’s possible to hold elections in smaller buildings, like town offices.

“There have been a number of new municipal offices that have been built,” said Diane Judd, president of the Vermont Municipal Clerks’ and Treasurers’ Association. “They may have been built to accommodate voting purposes.”

Another reason may be school safety. That’s what caused a struggle over where to vote within one Vermont community this fall.

In the past, students at Brookside Primary School in Waterbury attended class while general election voting took place in the gym. Now, because of school shootings across the country, the entire school district to which Brookside belongs is closing on Election Day, as well as the day before.

That’s increasingly true across Vermont. Only 16% of polling places around the state are in schools this year, down from 39% eight years ago, according to state records. Many of those remaining schools are closed for Election Day — like Brookside Primary.

“Prior to 1999, we had fire drills. That was it,” said Michael Leichliter, superintendent of Harwood Unified Union School District.

He said the 1999 Columbine massacre kicked off a new era of school shootings and increased focus on safety. “Schools are a very different place because of the unrest we’re seeing across our country,” he said.

Historically, Brookside has been used as the polling place in Waterbury for Town Meeting Day, primaries and general elections. Schools in Vermont are already closed on Town Meeting Day, so those gatherings have never posed an issue for student safety. 

But over the last several years, school officials have increased school security. At Brookside Primary, the front doors are now locked during the school day and visitors ring a buzzer to get inside.

On Election Day in 2022, voting happened while school was in session with school entry doors unlocked for the public to enter and exit to vote in the school gym. Parents, school staff, and even some voters and local election officials raised concerns about how little security there was on such a busy day. They worried about the increase in tensions around elections, combined with increased gun violence in schools in America in general.

Last winter before the 2024-25 school calendar was set, Leichliter met with Waterbury Town Clerk Karen Petrovic, as well as the school board chair, to talk through addressing the issue. They discussed several options, including closing off part of the school or moving the polling place altogether. The superintendent asked all of the town clerks in the Harwood district to consider voting locations for the November election that did not involve schools. Warren and Waitsfield in the valley did so, switching to use a town hall and a church instead. Other communities in the district did not rely on school buildings for voting. 

But Petrovic argued for keeping elections at Brookside Primary because it’s the only place in town big enough. And she prevailed.  “With almost 4,500 voters on my checklist, I have very limited resources as far as where I can hold an election,” Petrovic said. “I always have to prepare for 4,500 people showing up.”

After some back-and-forth communication, the superintendent proposed a calendar that listed Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 4-5, as non-student days across the district. Leichliter explained that one key goal is for all of the district’s schools to follow the same schedule. As a result, today is a day for family conferences around the district and Election Day will be a staff development day. Both are days off for students. 

The shift also prompted Waitsfield’s town clerk to keep the elementary school as the Nov. 5 polling place as well. 

Waterbury Assistant Town Clerk Beth Jones and Town Clerk Karen Petrovic work at the March Town Meeting Day election in the gym at Brookside Primary School. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Petrovic was a student at Brookside Primary in the 1980s when it was still Waterbury Elementary School. She remembers sitting in the gym to watch people vote. It left a strong impression on her.

Still, she was strongly in favor of students having Election Day off from school. She’s just sad about it. “The downside of this all is it doesn’t provide grade school students the opportunity to see how civil democracy works,” she said. “They don’t see it set up. They don’t see it torn down…But there’s other ways we can communicate that message nowadays. We’ve got to take care of the students’ safety first.”

Community News Service is a University of Vermont journalism internship program. Waterbury Roundabout contributed to this report.