The Mountain Times • Feb. 21-27, 2018 • 1
Mounta in Times Volume 47, Number 8
Feb. 21-27, 2018
Select Board candidates focus on the budget By Polly Lynn Mikula
Athletes with ties to Vermont compete for Olympic medals Burke Mountain Academy’s Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in the giant slalom, Feb. 15. Other Vermont athletes with near podium finishes include: Stratton Mountain School graduate Lindsey Jacobellis who finished fourth in snowboardcross by three-hundredths of a second, Stratton’s Jessie Diggins who keeps narrowly missing out on winning the women cross-country ski team’s first-ever Olympic medal, and five-time Winter Games snowboarder Kelly Clark of Mount Snow Academy who nabbed a fourth medal in the halfpipe.
KILLINGTON—On Town Meeting Day, March 6, voters in Killington will be asked to approve general fund expenditures of $4.4 million, of which $3.17 million will be raised by property taxes. This represents a tax rate of $0.41— a 4.4-cent increase per $100, or 11 percent, over last year. The three candidates running for the one open seat on the Killington Select Board have all stated that the town budget is a priority. This week we asked them to further explain their positions. First time candidate Kelly Lange said she supports the current budget and encourages Select board candidates, page 26 Courtesy of KES
Kindergartners at Killington Elementary School celebrated the 100th day of school, Thursday, Feb. 8. Like Isabelle (above), they started by “crawling into the 100th day” through a tunnel into the classroom. With the help of their sixth grade friends, the Kindergartners completed several stations including making a necklace with 100 fruit loops, bouncing a ball 100 times, building a creation with only 100 Legos and making a “100” hat. After the celebrations, the students went skiing at Killington Resort as part of the weekly Trailblazers program.
WCSU offers intra-district elementary school choice Students in Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock can attend any of the four elementary schools
Summer camp preview Check out the area’s summer camp options for keeping the kids busy during summer vacation this year. Book now! Pages 14-19
Students and families in the new Windsor Central Unified District (WCUD, which consists of the towns of Bridgewater, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock) can now choose which of the four district elementary schools they would like to attend. “Those seeking a small school with multi-age classrooms, an outdoor classroom, and an abundance of family and community events might choose Reading Elementary,” wrote Michelle Fountain, WCSU Communications Liaison, in a Feb. 15 news release. “Families looking for single-grade classes and a connection with Killington Mountain for the winter Trailblazers Ski and Ride program as
well as full school musicals and reading buddies can select Killington Elementary School. Students who want to study the stars might choose the Prosper Valley School with its Horizons Observatory, nature trails, and a sugar house. Families seeking a larger school with class sizes of 18-20, a STEM (science, engineering, technology and math) Lab and a Farmto-School Cafe could choose Woodstock Elementary School,” Fountain continued. The goals for the Intra-district School Choice Program (a key provision in the Act 46 plan put forth by the WCSU Act 46 Committee) are to meet the diverse needs of the student population, balance class sizes in all schools, create optimal learning environ-
WCSU, page 2
Rutland to debut schoolto-job pilot program RUTLAND—The Rutland Region Workforce Investment Board (RRWIB) in collaboration with the Rutland Economic Development Corporation (REDC) recently announced Real Careers @ Rutland County, a pilot program funded through the Vermont Department of Labor. The program will engage high school seniors and recent graduates in training and education for locally available jobs. While on graduation night more than 90 percent of our high school seniors say they will be going on to college in the fall, Job pilot, page 20
Teenager denies school shooting plot Gov. says threat at Fair Haven High School “jolted me”
By Alan J. Keays, VTDigger
Living A.D.E. What’s happening? Find local Arts, Dining & Entertainment Pages 33-43
Mounta in Times
is a community newspaper covering Central Vermont that aims to engage and inform as well as empower community members to have a voice.
mountaintimes.info
RUTLAND — Police say an 18-year-old Poultney man told them he planned to shoot up his former high school in Fair Haven, inspired by the two killers who carried out the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado nearly two decades ago. Jack Sawyer also told police of a notebook he kept where he wrote down his preparations for carrying out his plot, titled, “The Journal of an Active Shooter,” according to court records released Friday, Sept. 16. Police said they uncovered the plan before it could be carried it out thanks, in large part, to a girl, whom they did not identify, who reported to authorities text exchanges she had with Sawyer following the school shooting in Florida earlier this week that left 17 people dead. In those messages, Sawyer texted the girl in response to the Florida shooting, “That’s fantastic. 100 percent support it,” accord-
JACK SAWYER ing to court records. He later added in a text to the girl that school shootings are just “natural selection” where the strong can get out and survive, court records stated. After Sawyer communicated his desire
to cause mass casualties at the Fair Haven High School, Thursday, Feb. 15, he was taken into police custody. Sawyer was arraigned at Rutland Superior Court on Feb. 16, on the charges of Attempted Aggravated Murder, Attempted 1st degree Murder, and Attempted Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. “This is a stark reminder that we are not immune from tragic violence,” Gov. Phil Scott said Friday, at a press conference from his Montpelier offsice. “If not for the individuals who spoke up and reported something abnormal and concerning, we might be having an entirely different conversation today and we can’t accept that,” the governor said. “To be quite honest with you, in the aftermath of Florida, this situation in Fair Haven has jolted me,” Scott said. “Especially after reading the affidavit, and realizing that only by the grace of God and the courage of a young School threatened, page 27