the essex
September 28, 2017 • The Essex Reporter • 1
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{ Thursday, September 28, 2017 }
State school board group talks savings By COLIN FLANDERS The Essex Westford School Board has voiced support for statewide teacher health care contracts and a new fact-finding process while still at impasse in its own negotiations. The two measures are among a five-part resolution the Vermont School Board Association has offered in response to Gov. Phil Scott’s call to level-funded local budgets earlier this year. In a report issued by a VSBA subcommittee, the resolutions detail ways to curb the state’s rising education costs “without limiting opportunities or exacerbating inequity,” VSBA director Nicole Mace said. The resolutions lay out the VSBA’s stance on issues affecting Vermont school boards and are crafted in anticipation of public policy discussions in the coming year, Mace said, adding while Scott’s proposal failed, calls for lower education spending aren’t likely to disappear. The VSBA, made up of representatives from 62 supervisory unions, will issue a proxy vote on each during the organization’s annual meeting October 19. The EWSD board planned to select its proxy member next Tuesday after conducting an informal poll at its last meeting. Besides a few suggested changes, the resolutions received majority approval. The discussions progressed amid a continued stalemate between the EWSD board and its teachers’ union over contracts for the 2017-18 school year. Last month, the two sides learned the state planned to withhold over $800,000 over the next two years in its pursuit See BOARD, page 3
Nonprofit in the works By SAM HELLER
PHOTO BY TERI FERREIRA
The Essex High School field hockey team has won six-straight games and have outscored opponents 30-4 over that stretch. Here, senior captain Jenna Puleo swipes past a Rice Memorial High School player on on September 20th.
HORNETS WIN 6 STRAIGHT
Mike Abbott looked a little out of place outside the hip coffee shop beneath his secondstory apartment in Burlington’s Old North End. Earnest and intense, he lacked the selfreflexive cool affected by the laptop-toting patrons inside. It was a scorcher, and afternoon traffic lurched noisily down North Ave, but Abbott was miles away. “It's 65 degrees. It's quiet. The sun's just coming up on the water,” he said wistfully, gazing at a scene only he could see. “Birds are chirping, the hatch is happening, you're just immersed.” See ABBOTT, page 4
Newly ordained priest leads Essex churches By MICHAELA HALNON The Rev. Michael Carter, 27, purposefully donned a traditional shirt and tie to welcome his students to class at St. Michael’s College on the first day of this semester, knowing the sight of his white clerical collar can instantly ignite snap judgments — for better or for worse. “I’m not asking you to believe in what it is that we teach,” Carter remembers telling pupils. “Faith in this tradition is not a requirement in this course.” That day, Carter, a Burlington native, said he might have looked like any other professor. But the newly ordained priest and relatively recent St. Mike’s graduate has also seen stu-
dents do a double take when they realize they’re walking by a religious leader, not a peer, on the Colchester campus. On Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel, Carter was ordained into the priesthood and Society of St. Edmund. Separate from the Diocese of Burlington, the group founded St. Michael’s College and currently has about 25 members based in Colchester, Venezuela and Alabama, among other locales. Carter started working as a transitional deacon in the Essex and Essex Jct. Catholic churches, including Holy Family, St. Pius X and See PRIEST, page 4
PHOTO BY MICHAELA HALNON
The newly ordained Rev. Michael Carter poses for a photo outside the St. Michael's College chapel on Monday.
Locals have state impact INSIDE Six residents appointed to boards, commissions By ABBY LEDOUX When she was decorating downtown Burlington with murals in the ’80s, artist Gina Carrera never anticipated she’d become an advocate. That changed when she had two children with special needs.
MORE HORNETS PHOTOS, 12
The single mom of two – Nick, 16, and Bella, 14 – counts over 100 doctors between the three family members. Her experience dealing with so many medical professionals lent itself to supporting other parents of children with special needs, who were not yet See APPOINTMENTS, page 12
SPORTS: SOCCER, FOOTBALL, FIELD HOCKEY
FALL HOME IMPROVEMENT Homeowner prepares for "tiny-ish" life, 15 GINA CARRERA