§ 737. Warnings of unified union school district meetings
(a) The board of a unified union school district shall have the same authority and obligation to warn or call meetings of the district as a town school board has to warn or call town school district meetings.
(b) Except as provided in subsection (f) of this section, the district clerk shall warn a unified union school district meeting pursuant to the provisions of 17 V.S.A. § 2641 (town meetings and local elections; warning and notice publication) by posting a warning and notice to voters, signed by the chair of the board or the chair’s designee, specifying the date, time, location, and business of the meeting, in at least one public place in each town within the unified union school district, and causing the same to be published once in a newspaper circulating in the unified union school district. In the district clerk’s absence, the chair of the board or the chair’s designee shall warn the meeting pursuant to the provisions of this section.
(c) The warning shall, by separate articles, specifically indicate the business to be transacted, to include the offices and the questions upon which the electorate shall vote. The warning shall also contain any article or articles requested by a petition signed by at least five percent of the voters of the district and filed with the district clerk pursuant to 17 V.S.A. § 2642 (town meetings and local elections; warning and notice contents).
(d) The posted notice that accompanies the warning shall include information on voter registration, early and absentee voting, the time and location at which the ballots will be counted, and any other applicable information.
(e) The warning shall be recorded in the office of the district clerk before posting.
(f) This subsection applies if a unified union school district elects school board members under the “proportional to town population” model and if it elects those members by a floor vote rather than by Australian ballot.
(1) The election shall be warned as follows:
(A) The district clerk shall transmit the signed warning to each town clerk.
(B) The district clerk shall assist each town clerk to incorporate the warning into the warning for the annual or special meeting of each town.
(C) Each town clerk, rather than the district clerk, shall post and publish the warning pursuant to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section.
(2) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, if any town within the unified union school district elects its selectboard members by Australian ballot, then the warning, nomination, ballot preparation, and election of unified union school district board members shall proceed pursuant to the same laws that govern the town.
(3) If an annual town meeting at which the board members are elected under this subsection is more than 30 days prior to the annual meeting of the unified union school district, then notwithstanding subsection 729(a) (members of unified union school district boards) of this section, the newly elected board members shall assume office at the conclusion of the district’s annual meeting.
(g) Notwithstanding any provisions of this section to the contrary, a unified union school district:
(1) shall warn a meeting called for the purpose of considering a bond issue pursuant to the provisions of 24 V.S.A. § 1755; and
(2) shall warn a meeting to consider a revised proposed budget pursuant to the provisions of subsection 732(b) of this chapter. (Added 2021, No. 176 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. June 7, 2022.)