Megan Applegate

BFUHS to reopen as planned Aug. 30

School to take the state’s most lenient option, exclusively using rooms that tested safely, for a ‘five-day, full-time schedule with no disruption to learning and no remote learning’

It's all hands on deck for returning students to Bellows Falls Union High School next week.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the Bellows Falls Union High School (BFUHS) Board of Directors granted Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) Superintendent Andy Haas and BFUHS Principal Kelly O'Ryan operational authority to reopen the high school next week for the 2023-24 academic year after elevated PCB levels were found in the building earlier this month [story, page A1].

The motion, originally presented by board member David Clark, gave the authority to select an option provided to the board by the state Department of Environmental Conservation which allows for unrestricted use of rooms not above the immediate action threshold.

O'Ryan said the goal is to attempt to keep students and staff as close to the proposed 26 hours of exposure per week mandated in a more stringent option. The preferred option provides the highest risk to students and staff but also the most freedom to open and operate the school.

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My mother's croning was beautiful

To me, the life lesson of the crone has to be in the reclaiming of personal power. My mother was never more creative and productive than during those two decades between life on her own and her death this summer.

DesertCrone53. “What a weird username,” I thought to myself. Back in the early days of the internet, I was appalled the day my mother showed up on MySpace with that strange combination of words. (Thinking back, maybe it wasn't so much the name as it was the fact that...

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Finding my tribe

One new coach finds inspiration and reassurance in the life-changing advice of a beloved mentor

I was lucky enough to grow up with the kind of coach who could change your life. For the really talented swimmers, he did so literally: He got them college scholarships, Olympic trials, coaching jobs. He put them onto that sort of career trajectory. But for the “normies” like...

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