Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018

Page 1

Reeling in fans

FFA Week

Dance battle

A classic film series will kick off with a great flick starring Jimmy Stewart. See Arts + Leisure.

See Pages 4B and 5B for our coverage of aspiring young farmers like Ashlynn Foster.

The MUHS squad fared well at the state dance competition at VUHS on Saturday. See Page 1B.

ADDISON COUNTY

Vol. 72 No. 8

INDEPENDENT Middlebury, Vermont

Mount Abe’s bond faces crucial vote

Thursday, February 22, 2018

42 Pages

$1.00

Guns & schools

District voters to consider demographics, options, value of $29.5 million renovation

Editor’s note: Middlebury College reflect a 20 percent drop in proposed intern Charlie Mitchell looks at the spending on the renovation. The newly revised bond the school upcoming $29.5 million bond vote for the renovation of the Mount board approved on Jan. 10 is priced at $29.5 million and Abraham Union would be paid over High School in three 30 years. That’s $7.1 stories. First, here is million less than a brief overview of the bond proposal the proposal, then on narrowly defeated page 10A he looks on Nov. 2, 2017. The at demographic and first bond, at $32.2 workforce trends in million, was defeated the district. Monday’s on Town Meeting edition will feature a Day in 2014 by a third story reviewing 3-to-1 margin. other options as the Superintendent district looks forward. Patrick Reen explains By CHARLIE that the new asking MITCHELL price represents “the BRISTOL — smallest amount Residents of Mount SUPERINTENDENT we could bond for Abe Unified School PATRICK REEN and still get the District will try for a third time to pass a bond vote to priorities (of the original renovation) renovate the aging middle-and-high addressed.” Dore & Whittier, the architectural school facility on March 6, Town Meeting Day. This third vote is firm heading the design, submitted a much like the previous two, with memorandum to the school district some significant compromises to (See Schools, Page 10A)

Alternative education program cut as MUHS enrollment declines

By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Citing declining enrollment and a related need to reduce spending, Middlebury Union High School officials confirmed plans to eliminate the alternative education program at the conclusion of this academic year. Bill Lawson, principal of MUHS, said the roughly 15 students currently served through the alt ed program will be mainstreamed beginning this fall at the high school, where he’s confident they’ll succeed with counseling, guidance services and access to a handful of new, “experiential” courses he believes will benefit youths who find it tough to succeed in a conventional classroom setting.

The three alt ed teachers — Al Calzini, Larry O’Connor and Steve Colangeli —will also be brought into the MUHS fold to fill teaching vacancies created by attrition and retirements. “Due to several factors, changes to the current high school structure are necessary,” Lawson wrote in a recent letter to parents/guardians of alt ed students. He specifically cited declining enrollment, “looming school finance changes” and “recent changes in proficiency-based graduation requirements adopted by the school board” as the main culprits that have put the squeeze on alt ed and other MUHS offerings. The proficiency-based graduation (See Alt Ed program, Page 11A)

ADDISON COUNTY RESIDENTS Lily Isham, left, Julian Roy, Griffin Louer and Alison Seaton joined around 200 people at a rally at the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday to lobby for stronger gun safety laws. After the rally, participants — many of whom were high school students — took the opportunity to talk with lawmakers about the need for stricter gun laws in light of the recent school shooting in Florida and the alleged mass shooting planned for Fair Haven Union High School. Photo courtesy of Michael Roy

ACSD board urges lawmakers to act on gun control By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The Addison Central School District board on Monday endorsed a resolution urging legislative leaders to pass “common-sense gun violence prevention legislation” during the 2018 legislative session, and for

Gov. Phil Scott to promptly sign that legislation into law. Board members fielded the resolution in wake of the fatal shooting on Feb. 14 of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and the arrest of a Poultney,

Vt., teen charged last Friday with attempted murder in connection with the threat of a mass shooting at Fair Haven Union High School (see related story on this page). ACSD board members Mary Gill, Ruth Hardy and Jason Duquette-Hoffman were prominent

supporters of the resolution, sent to Scott, Vermont House Speaker Mitzi Johnson and Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe. The resolution was also copied to members of Addison County’s legislative delegation. (See ACSD, Page 12A)

Brandon police take steps at OV after Fair Haven threat By LEE J. KAHRS FAIR HAVEN/BRANDON — A link to the school shooting threat that originated in Fair Haven last week prompted Brandon police to take action at Otter Valley Union High School. In the end, though, authorities said no one in Brandon

was in immediate danger from the threat. With an eerie echo of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting on Feb. 14, Vermont State Police on Feb. 15 arrested 18-year-old Jack Sawyer of Poultney for allegedly making threats and plans to commit

a mass shooting at Fair Haven Union High School. That information hit even closer to home the previous day. That’s when Fair Haven police notified Brandon police that there was an “unsubstantiated threat” directed toward FHUHS; the Otter Valley

Union High School boys’ basketball team was due to host Fair Haven for a game that night. “We were in contact with Fair Haven about a vague threat reported to them,” Brandon Police Chief Chris Brickell said in an interview (See Brandon, Page 11A)

Library is at heart of Halpern’s novel By the way When someone suggested this week that early voting for the March 6 Town Meeting Day election would end soon, we checked with a local expert — Middlebury Town Clerk Ann Webster. She said early voting has been going on since Feb. 14. The Middlebury town clerk’s office will be closed on Monday the 5th for election preparation and set-up so there is no voting on that Monday. But Ann’s office will be open weekdays through Friday, March 2, and Middlebury (See By the way, Page 2A)

Index Obituaries........................... 6A-7A Classifieds........................ 7B-10B Service Directory............... 8B-9B Entertainment.........Arts + Leisure Community Calendar......... 8A-9A Arts Calendar.........Arts + Leisure Sports................................. 1B-3B

Book-filled venue helps characters heal, find friendship By JOHN FLOWERS RIPTON — Sue Halpern loves libraries. She likes spending time in them. She co-founded one. And now she has written a novel about a fictional library that serves as a transformative backdrop for camaraderie and healing among a group of people who otherwise wouldn’t have looked twice at one another. It’s called “Summer Hours at the Robbers Library” and is the Ripton resident’s third novel. She completed it around two years ago and let it sit on the shelf for a while — not out of a lack of enthusiasm about the final product, but because she found herself taking on a flurry of other literary assignments. Halpern is a well-known, well-respected nonfiction writer and journalist. Her articles are routinely published in the New Yorker and New York Times. Let’s just say that national and world events during the past year-and-ahalf have merited a lot of her ink. “Robbers” waited patiently in line for its release this month. Halpern will officially launch it during an appearance at Middlebury’s Vermont Book Shop on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 6:30 p.m.

Halpern drew her “Robbers” inspiration from two sources, beginning with her interest in the subject of how human beings cope with physical trauma. The relevancy of trauma becomes clear in “Robbers.” We won’t spoil that plot detail here. The other impetus for the book was her past experience with literature — not only as an author, but as a founder of the first public library in the township of Johnsburg, located in the Adirondacks region of New York state. “I was thinking about how that library was transformative for the town and for the people in the town,” she recalled of her Johnsburg experience. “It became, and still is, a place where people who would ordinarily not know each other, and not have a lot to do with each other, came in contact with each other — to good effect.” “Robbers” plays out, with at times dramatic and humorous effect, inside the mythical “Robbers

Library” in Riverton. Head Librarian Kit and Sunny — an inquisitive and authority-challenging youth — are the pillar characters of the novel, though they have a great supporting cast. There’s a collection of four older men for whom the library has become a daily ritual. “The Four,” as they are known, weigh in with words of advice and occasional comic relief in between perusing periodicals. There’s Rusty, described as a “Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to earth.” “I really tried to imagine what it must have been like to go from thinking you’re on top of the world because you were making tons of money and stuff … and to have all of that pulled from underneath you,” Halpern said. “How would you go about figuring out what to do next?” There’s Evelyn Mosher, the “permanently grumpy” circulation clerk. All play a role in shaping the (See Halpern, Page 3A)

RIPTON RESIDENT SUE Halpern, seen here with her dog Bierke, just published a new novel called “Summer Hours at the Robbers Library.”

Independent photo/Trent Campbell


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