Messages welcome refugee students in the window of SIT’s International Center lobby.
Featured Story

‘What a remarkable and brave group of young people’

Refugee students from Jordan and Kenya arrive for college prep at SIT

BRATTLEBORO-More than 80 adults ages 19 to 26 have come to town from Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq, and Ethiopia to engage in college prep.

Through Welcome Corps on Campus, a U.S. Department of State program that empowers U.S. colleges and universities to enroll and support refugee students through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, the School for International Training (SIT) opened its classrooms and dorms to welcome these students chosen to participate from among several thousand WCC applicants.

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News

In Brattleboro, with bitter cold comes urgent need for shelter

BRATTLEBORO-With night temperatures dipping below freezing and an estimated 80 unsheltered people in the area, community members are calling on the town to open an emergency overnight shelter. At a Jan. 23 meeting of Brattleboro's Community Homelessness Strategy Team (CHST), Cristina Shay-Onye, a Brattleboro resident, urged the town to develop a plan of action. "It has now been exactly one month since I sent an email [to town officials] saying we need to open something up tonight," Shay-Onye told meeting...

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Secretary of state asks: How is Vermont’s civic health?

BRATTLEBORO-Vermont is among the top states in the nation in terms of civic engagement, but only because the rest of the nation is doing worse. That was the crux of the message that Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and members of her staff brought to Brooks Memorial Library on Jan. 15 on the first stop of their Civic Health Index Tour. The Civic Health Index measures the health of a state's civic engagement by dividing it into into...

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Hope and defiance

BRATTLEBORO-Under a slate gray sky with a cold wind sweeping across the Town Common, approximately 200 people gathered on Jan. 18 for a peaceful rally that, in the words of organizers, united people "in solidarity as humans, as immigrants, as LGBTQIA+ individuals, as BIPOC communities, as allies." They marched on the downtown sidewalks from Flat Street to the Common with a variety of signs, plenty of Palestinian Authority flags, and a desire to prevent the next four years of the...

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Jamaica votes to keep its school; WCSU must keep it in use

JAMAICA-A 85–56 vote on Jan. 14 to keep Jamaica Village School open will affect the town's property tax rate, the Windham Central Supervisory Union (WCSU) budget for the 2025–26 school year, and the proposal to consolidate the education of Windham Central elementary school students in Newfane. While voters approved the purchase of the school building from the West River Modified Union Education District for $1, the article was nullified by the vote to keep the school open. Jamaica Village School...

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Dummerston library expands kids’ program with more space

DUMMERSTON-The future of children's offerings at Lydia Taft Pratt Library will be a whole lot brighter thanks to a $54,700 grant from the Vermont Early Childhood Fund (VECF) to build a new program for children's early literacy and library services. The amount of the VECF's Building Bright Futures Opportunity grant is the largest the library has seen in its 110-year history and will afford the library the chance to "significantly" expand services for young readers and use more space in...

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Dummerston candidates step up for school board

BRATTLEBORO-Three candidates have expressed interest in being appointed to the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) School Board seat left vacant by former town representative Eva Nolan's recent resignation. All three met with board members after press time on Jan. 21, after which the board was expected to make a decision and appoint one of them to fulfill the seat until the March 4 annual election, when a one-year term will be available. • Gretchen Lanterman has already decided to seek...

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Tom Salmon, former governor, dies at 92

BRATTLEBORO-When Vermont Democrats lacked a gubernatorial candidate the afternoon of the primary deadline in August 1972, Rockingham lawyer Tom Salmon, in the most last-minute of Hail Mary passes, threw his hat in the ring. "There could be a whale of a big surprise," Salmon was quoted as saying by skeptical reporters who knew the former local legislator had been soundly beached in his first try for state office two years earlier. Then a Moby Dick of a shock came on...

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‘You may end up in a situation you didn’t welcome’

BRATTLEBORO-Standing on the sidewalk next to 9 Canal St., a multi-family apartment building above the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT) Executive Director Elizabeth Bridgewater points to a wooden trellis running up the side of the building. "People are climbing up the trellis and entering the hall window that occupants unlock," she said. WWHT co-owns and manages the 9 Canal St. property, which includes 12 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The units are permanently affordable, with rents ranging...

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