Opposition Group Issues Statement on MOU
Hinesburg coalition believes school board misled the public about $6 million gift of an artificial turf field for CVU; objects that "Memorandum of Understanding" is binding agreement.
By Margaret McNurlan
The public have been repeatedly misled about the process the CVSD school board would follow in developing an agreement to install an artificial turf field at CVU High School.
The public first became aware of the Field Turf proposal in August 2025 through the fundraising efforts of Eli Lesser-Goldsmith and the Community Field Project. From the outset, members of the community were deeply concerned that this proposal included an artificial turf field and sought to engage with the school board.
Throughout this process we were repeatedly assured that no decision had been made, that a decision would only occur after our concerns were heard and discussed, and more information had been gathered by the board.
We have been told by school board chair Meghan Metzler that the board began exploring this issue last fall (2025). The first board meeting to discuss acceptance of the gift was on April 14, 2026. We have been repeatedly told that the first step to be taken, after any decision to accept the gift, would be a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This is a term widely understood to mean a non-binding agreement outlining the terms of a final binding agreement or contract, which is to be negotiated.
At the June 30, 2026, meeting, the board voted to accept the gift and designated Superintendent Bunting to draft the MOU. We, and other members of the community, expected to be able to review and comment on the MOU, and anticipated that the board would again vote on its specific terms before proceeding to negotiate a final contract. This was an important step because the public had not been provided with any information about the terms of the gift, other than that it obliged the district to install an artificial turf field.
On July 15, the Gift Agreement with the Community Field Project was posted on the school district website and identified as an MOU. We are deeply disturbed to see that it is not an MOU, but rather a final binding agreement that contains an extensive list of gift terms and restrictions, and an agreement on the management of the school district’s estimated $6 million capital project.
The agreement also disclosed for the first time that “on August 13, 2025, CVSD and the Donor (Community Field Project) executed a non-binding Term Sheet that set forth the terms for a restricted gift in support of the Project, which provided that the Parties would negotiate in good faith and execute a definitive agreement memorializing such terms.” A Term Sheet is a commonly used term with the same meaning as an MOU.
We believe that the public has been seriously misled about the board’s review process from the very beginning, and that we have been denied the right to review and comment on critical and substantive terms of this agreement before the actual agreement was signed. This is a complicated and unusual agreement, and we will have additional comments after our review of the document has been completed.
Margaret McNurlan represents two groups – Responsible Growth Hinesburg and the Campaign to Keep Grass Fields at CVU – that are opposed to the proposed artificial turf field at CVU and to the way the school board came to its decision.
If the initial agreement that can be construed as an MOU dates back to August 2025 and it’s existence/ content wasn’t even mentioned how is this compatible with the spirit of the open meeting law?