ECRWSS PRSRT STD US Postage
PAID
Permit #15 Williston,VT 05495 POSTAL CUSTOMER
RECIPE INSIDE! OCTOBER 21, 2021
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
A pandemic boost for Baptist school
Trinity proposes housing subdivision Trinity Baptist Church and its adjacent private school sit on a 50-acre parcel of mostly open space. In filings with the Williston Planning and Zoning Department earlier this month, the school has proposed subdividing the land into two lots, building a 58-unit condominium development on 20 acres on the east side of the property and retaining about 30 acres where a new indoor gym and classrooms would be built, as well as five units of staff housing. Pastor and school administrator Rob McIlwaine said the plan is to have the housing subdivision help finance the new school facilities. The new gym and classrooms would handle expected future enrollment growth, and the staff housing would be a draw for recruiting teachers, he said. “We’re looking for ways to be able to accomplish a multi-purpose building … and we’re also looking for ways to provide housing for teachers,” said McIlwaine. “Right now it’s hard for me to recruit teachers to come to Vermont because our cost of living here — mortgage and rent — is so high.” The proposals are up for preliminary review at the Nov. 23 meeting of the Williston Development Review Board. — Jason Starr
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Trinity Baptist Church is seen as clouds lift over Mt. Mansfield Wednesday morning.
Less restrictive Covid protocols attract new students to Trinity BY JASON STARR Observer staff Enrollment at Trinity Baptist School has risen roughly 25 percent since the start of the pandemic. During the 2020-2021 school year, the increase was mostly the result of families wanting (or needing) their children to be in school full time, instead of the learn-from-home options offered at local public schools. Enrollment increased again this school year as the Baptist school on Mountain View Road offered a mask-choice classroom environment different than the indoor mask mandates imposed by public schools. According to pastor and school administrator Rob McIlwaine, about 90 percent of Trinity’s roughly 100 K-12 students do not wear masks in class.
“We told parents that masks would be their choice and that we would support that,” McIlwaine said. The school’s first close brush with Covid arose this week, when an older sibling of two Trinity students tested positive Monday. The two students were picked up early from school and will remain out of school until they test negative, McIlwaine said. The school asks parents to keep their children home and to get them tested to rule out Covid if they are sick, and it follows “the Vermont and CDC (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines on quarantining strictly,” McIlwaine said. “It would be a game-changer if these two students come up with a positive test,” McIlwaine said. “We would probably go to … students and staff wearing masks until we get to the point where we think there is not going to be spread.” The majority of the school’s
enrollment growth has come in the K-2 age range. A bigger draw than mask choice this year has been the alternative Trinity offers to public school teachings around racial history and gender fluidity, McIlwaine said. In 2020, however, enrollment growth was fueled primarily by Trinity’s less restrictive Covid protocols, particularly its retention of in-person instruction. “If you have two working parents and the local public school was only offering a hybrid (schedule) where they are in school some days and not the others, that wasn’t working for them,” McIlwaine said. “Parents needed their young ones in school.” Trinity draws students from Williston, Essex, Milton, Georgia and as far away as Addison County. According to a VTDigger report published last week, Vermont school districts are still recovering from last year’s learn-from-home
OBSERVER PHOTO BY JASON STARR
schedule, with acute behavioral issues cropping up in several public schools across the state. Teachers in Addison County have described damage and destruction of school property and increased classroom disruptions. After a year where kids could “sign on and off at will” during remote learning, some are “really having a difficult time reengaging,” Superintendent Catherine Gallagher of the Lamoille North School District told VTDigger. Williston Schools Lead Principal Greg Marino wrote in an Oct. 8 note to families that incidences of vandalism at Williston schools have been on the increase this fall, due largely to “challenges” on the social video platform TikTok that students are carrying out. “I don’t even know how to explain it,” Rutland Northeast Superintendent Jeanne Collins told VTDigger. “It’s almost like people have forgotten how to behave in school.”
DINE-IN & TAKE OUT VIA ONLINE ORDERING Shelburne Road, South Burlington Maple Tree Place, Williston
www.GetBlissBee.com #getblissbee