Over the weekend, VTDigger posted a story about the good people of Westford bemoaning the potential fate of their local school. The Essex-Westford district is discussing a plan to move the sixth through eighth grades from Westford to the Essex Middle School, and some Westfordians (Ed: Reference needed) fear it’s the first step toward their school being closed entirely, a move that a town official described as “disastrous” for the town’s future.

They are right to be concerned. But there’s one big thing they could do to try to save their local school: Go all in on housing.

Single-family homes, preferably at moderate prices? Yes! Condos? Yes! Apartments? Yes! Trailer parks? Well, sure. More of everything, please. YIMBY, YIMBY, YIMBY.

Look. Westford is a tiny place, population a tick north of 2,000. But it’s absolutely close enough to Burlington to capitalize on the region’s overheated housing market, especially housing for young families. It’s about five miles east of Milton, which is rapidly becoming a bedroom community for Burlington. It’s about 10 miles north of Essex Junction. It’s less convenient to Burlington than either of those communities, but that wouldn’t keep people from moving there if the, uhh, town’s median housing price wasn’t MORE THAN HALF A MILLION DOLLARS, good God in heaven.

Meanwhile, the Westford School has a combined enrollment, across ten grades (Pre-K through 8), of about 200 students, good for an average of 20 per grade. That’s teetering on the edge of sustainability. You’ve got a shortage of school-age children and a grossly expensive housing supply. The solution would seem to be crystal clear. Build More Housing!

This might not work for small communities in other parts of Vermont, or at least it would be less of a sure thing. But Westford is close enough to the booming Burlington area that it ought to be able to build its population fairly quickly. If only they had More Housing!

I’m sure that some of the people fretting over their school’s future are also concerned about potential change in the “character of the community.” (Code for “we don’t want no damn outsiders here, especially not working class folk and CERTAINLY not poor people.”) But it seems to me you have a simple choice: Preserve your community’s character, whatever the hell that means, and watch it slowly wither away, or grow your community and ensure the future of the local school. It’s all there in front of you. What will you do about it?