By Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger
Rutland City officials are seeking the resignation of a local school board member who continues to serve after reportedly moving to a nearby town.
“The city has found that you do not reside within the city as is required to be eligible to vote within the city and to have a seat on the city’s school board,” municipal attorney Megan LaChance wrote to board member Heather Hauke in a Dec. 24 letter.
Hauke, owner of Rutland’s Intrinsic Property Services and mother of four school-age children, was elected to a three-year term on the 11-member board in 2023 and will be up for reelection in 2026.
Hauke, reached by phone Thursday, said she hadn’t received the letter and wouldn’t answer questions about where she was living or whether she would resign.
“There clearly must be a misunderstanding,” she said, adding, “That’s all I’m going to say.”
But the city attorney, “having completed due diligence and upon reasonable belief,” determined that Hauke and her family now live in Mendon, according to the letter.
“Despite not residing in the city, you are registered to vote in the city and currently sit on the Rutland City School Board,” LaChance wrote.
To avoid a “public spectacle,” the lawyer continued, “the city respectfully requests you to voluntarily correct your voter registration and to resign from the school board.”
“If you fail to take the requested action,” the letter closed, “the city will initiate proceedings to have you removed from the voter registry in the city and from the school board.”
Three weeks after mailing the letter, the city attorney said she had yet to receive a formal response from Hauke, who participated in the board’s most recent meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 14.
When Hauke ran for election two years ago, she noted her family’s connection to Rutland City schools.
“I’ve always been volunteering in classrooms, whenever there’s a field day or a field trip or an open house,” she told the VTDigger in 2023. “I feel like this is the next step in being involved.”
Asked about potential next steps, LaChance said, “Due to statutory constraints, we are not able to take formal action until after the Town Meeting election,” which this year is March 4.
