Despite a five-hour executive session on March 1, the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) Board did not reach a consensus in its superintendent search before annual elections - and now a new board will deliberate and consider what steps to take going forward.
WSESU is comprised of the Vernon School District and the Windham Southeast School District. Vernon has a five-member board with one seat on the WSESU.
The WSESD has a 10-member board and four seats on the WSESU (from Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Putney). The WSESD board reorganized March 8, the Vernon Board will reorganize on Monday, March 14, and the WSESU should then reorganize on Wednesday, March 16.
Former Superintendent Andy Skarzynski stepped down on June 30, 2021, and the process to replace him started in earnest in August.
I'd like to thank those people who supported me in my campaign for a seat on the Newfane Selectboard. Although I did not prevail, I will continue to be involve in the issues of our town. I strongly encourage all of you to do the same. A community is...
I'm sending a big thank you to the record number of Guilford voters who took part in the March 1 Town Meeting Day election. Forty-two percent of Guilford's registered voters signaled preferences on a number of key issues as well as a number of position races. Bravo! I am...
His leadership has been breathtaking. So has the courage and true patriotism of the Ukrainian people. Make no mistake: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's life is on the line. Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatened by him, and now, with the world moved by his heroism, with the contrast of the democrat versus the despot, David versus Goliath, Putin is put to shame and is more motivated than ever to get rid of him. Putin has trained assassins searching for Zelenskyy,
Last week, officials at Gov. Phil Scott's weekly press conference cited the falling number of severe Covid outcomes as a reason to end its masking recommendation and change its isolation guidance effective March 14. “The decision to wear a mask will be up to each person based on their own circumstances, personal risk assessment and health needs,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said this week. “This will mean something different for everyone,” he said. “You may feel ready to take off...
The children at the Village Early Learning Center (VELC) will be breathing cleaner air thanks to the yearly holiday collection of a local family. VELC is this year's beneficiary of the Williams family's annual Christmastime collection, “because with Covid, it's important to help the kids,” according to Christine Williams. Williams spoke on behalf of the family headed by matriarch Mildred “Milly” Williams of Bellows Falls, who raised her seven children in Saxtons River and provided child care for many more.
A friend sent me a talk by Mark Charles at Calvin College on “Race, Trauma, and the Doctrine of Discovery” (bit.ly/654-race). His message - which takes a little less than an hour - is the antidote to all this critical race theory and explains factual, American history and why it is so hard to talk about it. It is not meant to shame anyone, but to open thought and dialogue. It is a non-blaming look at reality and what we...
Looking back on another year of Town Meeting Day disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, there were two major issues that came up before voters. Two years ago, Vermont put into motion a plan to legalize the production, distribution, sale, and possession of recreational cannabis and gave cities and towns a say in determining whether to allow retail sales in their communities to anyone 21 and older. Under Vermont law, consumption of recreational cannabis is legal, but communities must opt in...
The Rock River Players will hold auditions for two one-acts to be presented in an early June Evening of One Acts in the Williamsville Hall, Williamsville. All are welcome Friday, March 11, from 5 to 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 13, from noon to 3 p.m., at Newfane's Moore Free Library. Allow a half-hour to audition. Here, Gus and The Philadelphia are both part of this program of short plays which opens the Rock River Players' 2022 season. By Jennifer...
District 3 to hold RTM citizens' forum BRATTLEBORO - In an effort to help Representative Town Meeting (RTM) members in District 3 better represent their constituents, a public forum will take place on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. in the social hall at Trinity Lutheran Church, 161 Western Ave. The forum is intended to allow people who live in District 3 to express their concerns and to ask questions about town issues in advance of the Annual Representative Town...
The rich and powerful seem to share at least one trait: They have a remarkable ability to ignore the real life consequences of their pronouncements, acquisitions, and policies. President Joe Biden puts on his earnest face and speaks with great empathy during his speeches. When campaigning, he assured us that he would end the suffering being inflicted on asylum seekers by the brutal border policies of former President Donald Trump. But after a year in office, asylum seekers are still...
Brattleboro Area Hospice once again offers the opportunity to double your impact and help neighbors in need. This year, the organization's Neighbor 2 Neighbor Fund will support three local nonprofits: Winston Prouty Center, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, and the Afghan Refugee Project. Last year, residents Connie Baxter and Greg Moschetti came up with the idea of “a twofer” - purchasing gift cards at Experienced Goods and donating them to clients at Groundworks Collaborative. This was the impetus for the...
With the expectation that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to recede, Marlboro Music has announced there will be in-person summer chamber music performances during five concert weekends from July 16 through Aug. 14. However, Marlboro Music said, safety protocols will remain in place. Proof of vaccination will be required to attend all open rehearsals and performances, with vaccination and ID cards checked at the door. Audience members will be required to wear masks in the hall. “At this time, to...
Obituaries • Dr. Hilke (Thiessen) Breder, 79, of Brattleboro. Died Dec. 7, 2021 at Pine Heights nursing home. Hilke was born on March 7, 1942 in Hamburg, Germany. She attended the Kunsthochschule (Art School) of Hamburg and left Hamburg in 1965 to live in New York City. After a number of years in New York City, Hilke moved to the Midwest where she graduated from the University of Iowa in 1972. She continued her studies in medicine, graduating in 1976...
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Meals on Wheels in town, spearheaded by Putney Community Cares. The nation's premier nutrition program for seniors, Meals on Wheels is designed to help people over age 60 who face challenges in preparing healthy, adequate meals due to such situations as advancing age, hospital recovery or physical disability. In Vermont, this program is also available to people younger than age 60 through the Vermont Center for Independent Living. For the...
Greater Falls Connections (GFC) in Bellows Falls has received a Community-Based Coalition Enhancement Grant to Address Local Drug Crisis (CARA) of $250,000 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). According to a ONDCP news release, the CARA program “enhances the efforts of current or former Drug-Free Communities (DFC) program recipients to prevent opioid, methamphetamine, and prescription drug use among youth ages 12-18 across the United States.” GFC says it is using the funding to involve and...
Lee Bradford has been hired as the Brattleboro Food Co-op's new general manager. Bradford will replace Sabine Rhyne, Co-op's general manager from 2015 to 2021, who left at the end of the year. Store Manager Whitney Field has served as interim manager. The Co-op board of directors praised Field for her “steady leadership during this transition.” After Bradford's two-day visit and interview here in February, Field said that the prospective leader “came across to me as someone who is humble...
The Grenser Trio, which explores classical and early-romantic chamber music on historical instruments, will perform a program entitled “Border Crossings,” Sunday, March 20. The 4 p.m. concert will include Haydn's Trio in A, HOB XV:18; Mozart's Twelve Variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman,” K. 265/300e; Beethoven's Duo No. 3, WoO 27; Vanhal's Adagio Cantabile from Sonata No. 1 in B flat major; Haydn's Two Scottish Songs; and Beethoven's Trio, Op. 11. Performers include Ed Matthew, classical clarinet; Carlene Stober, cello;
Celebrate the full moon energy, shake off the lethargy of winter, and learn about Holi, India's colorful spring festival, at River Gallery School on 32 Main St., on Saturday, March 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. This community event is an opportunity to experience Indian culture through art making, food, and music. It features free Indian snacks from Shital's Indian Vegetarian Food, based in Dover; art activities for all age groups; and inspiring Indian music. Holi is celebrated in India...
The Brattleboro Literary Festival invites everyone to join them on Friday, March 11, at 5 p.m., for a very different monthly Literary Cocktail Hour with Vermont author David R. Holmes. The online event is free and open to the public; register at bit.ly/LitCocktail18. On Being a Vermonter and the Rise and Fall of the Holmes Farm 1822–1923 is a case study of a Vermont farm that existed from the early 1800s to the early 1900s. As the Holmes Farm pioneered...
The Selectboard will hold a pre–Annual Representative Town Meeting information forum on Wednesday, March 9 via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. ARTM articles will be discussed, including the budget. Constituents can meet with Town Meeting members of each district to share their views and discuss articles to be voted on at the annual meeting, beginning at 5:15 p.m. (for District 1), 6 p.m. (for District 2), and 6:45 p.m. (for District 3). Also, at those times, each district will hold a...
On the March 2 broadcast of NPR's All Things Considered, I heard Linda Thomas-Greenfield, our ambassador to the United Nations (who, by the way, was described as wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag) say about some anti-Russian resolution she and others were proposing as being part of “a battle for the soul of the world.” Give me a break, please! When the U.N., as it has many times, nearly unanimously passed resolutions condemning, say, U.S. aggression in Iraq or...
Invading a smaller nation under false, trumped-up pretenses; doing so with superior weaponry; massacring people; and shattering the infrastructure with toxic waste should be seen by anyone as a criminal act. What if Iraq had been tied into adjacent NATO nations with their powerful allies and a significant amount of our country's banking was tied into the banks in one or many of those nations choosing to freeze our assets in retaliation? What if our dollars that you and I...
It was the fall of 1991 - only a few months after Ukraine became an independent nation. I was there with three other women contracted by the U.S. Peace Corps to train local language teachers to teach Ukrainian to the soon-to-arrive first group of Peace Corps volunteers. The group to be trained consisted of Ukrainian and Russian teachers. Both Ukraine and Russia were going to start receiving Peace Corps volunteers the following year. The training site was a former army...
Miss Fran, what is a pipe bomb? I was teaching second grade and was also head of the primary at an international school in Armenia, an Eastern European country, on the day this question was asked of me in October of 2020. Armenia was in a war with Azerbaijan that began on Sept. 27 of that year. But it wasn't the first war between them, and it certainly won't be the last. Every Armenian family that I knew had a...
The postseason ride for the Bellows Falls Terriers boys' basketball team was shorter than they had hoped, but it was nice while it lasted. The fifth-seeded Terriers held on to beat the No. 13 Randolph Galloping Ghosts, 76-58, in a Division III first-round playoff on March 2 at Holland Gymnasium, but BF came up short in the quarterfinal round, losing to the fourth-seeded Vergennes Commodores, 63-52, on March 5. However, the memory I hope that the Terriers will take with...
In honor of Black History Month and the ongoing collaboration between the WIndham County NAACP and the town Equity and Inclusion Committee, the Windham County NAACP purchased and presented the Putney Selectboard with a print of the Black Lives Matter Mural as it was captured by commercial photographer Justin Altman (JustinAltman.com) on Sept. 27, 2020. As described in a news release from the NAACP, the picture will be hung in the meeting room of Town Hall “as a permanent installation...
As most Vermonters talked up Town Meeting Day last week, Brattleboro government leaders - who spent months actively pushing for a state law allowing municipal mask mandates - needed only 10 minutes to quietly lift their own. Though Windham County has among the lowest regional COVID-19 case rates, Brattleboro officials know the conversation isn't over. “People are going to feel differently about it,” Selectboard member Daniel Quipp said at a meeting overshadowed by the reporting of vote results. “Some will...
Deborah Stanford and Lana Dever have been elected as the first persons of color to serve as directors on the Windham Southeast School District school board. The district includes all public schools within Guilford, Brattleboro, Dummerston, and Putney. Voters in the March 1 annual election from all four towns selected one representative each for Brattleboro, Dummerston, and Guilford. All school board members represent the four towns equally, and all voters from each of the four towns voted on each seat.
The Brattleboro Women's Chorus welcomes new members to sing with them either virtually or in-person. They will be singing on Thursdays this spring, starting with a Zoom “Open Rehearsal” on Thursday, March 17, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., after which singers may register to continue singing via Zoom or join one of their in-person rehearsals. In-person rehearsals begin on March 24 and will be held either Thursday mornings at the Brattleboro Music Center from 10 to 11:30 a.m., or Thursday...
As Russian forces are poised to take control of Ukraine, I am reminded of the endless stories told around the dinner table about the torture Ukrainians have endured at the hands of Russia. I am all too familiar with the famine that left as many as 3.9 million Ukrainians to starve to death as the Russian soldiers and clergy took food from the pantries of my relatives. Animals were fed the food in front of them as they watched. I...
Acoustic musicians Alex Sturbaum, Cedar Stanistreet, and Arthur Davis present an afternoon of traditional and original songs and tunes from both sides of the Atlantic on Sunday, March 13, at 3 p.m. The concert will be the first at the new Exit 1 Emporium at Vermont Marketplace (formerly The Outlet Center) on Canal Street. Admission is on a sliding scale of $10 to $20. Sturbaum is based in Olympia, Washington. As a singer, songwriter, dance musician, and multi-instrumentalist, he performs...