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Town launches housing grant programs Selectboard approves uses for Housing Trust Fund BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Parking on the pitch A hot air balloon ride ended with a landing on the soccer fields at Village Community Park behind Williston Central School on Memorial Day. The passengers were a couple from Massachusetts celebrating their engagement. Park-goers helped with the landing and packing up the balloon. PHOTO BY KEVIN BROCHU
The Williston Housing Committee will begin taking applications in July for two new housing programs approved by the selectboard earlier this month. The board launched both a housing retention and housing improvement program for Williston residents as part of its May 6 adoption of a Williston Housing Trust Fund policy. The trust fund was established in 2017 to support housing affordability, and the board empaneled the housing committee in 2023 to recommend potential uses. “Past efforts to incentivize the creation of affordable housing
have had mixed results,” the policy states. “Because of this, the selectboard decided several years ago the town should be taking a more active role in stimulating and supporting the development of affordable housing.” The May 6 approval releases $40,000 in the new fiscal year beginning in July, split equally between the two programs. The housing retention program will offer grants of up to two month’s rent or mortgage payment to “households or individuals at risk of losing their current housing due to financial hardship,” the policy states. “There’s a lot of people who run into tough luck. Sometimes just a helping hand is all they need to keep going,” board member Mike Isham said. The housing improvement see HOUSING page 8
Champlain Valley schools go cellphone free
School board steps aside as administrators draft phone ban plan BY JASON STARR Observer staff
As the school year comes to a close, so does the era of students using cellphones in class, cafeterias and hallways in Champlain
Valley School District buildings. School administrators capped months of inquiry into the possibility of banning phones with a presentation during last Tuesday’s school board meeting of their draft phone regulations for next year. In short, phones are to be out of sight from “bell to bell.” “The expectation is, if phones are out, they will be taken until
“The expectation is, if phones are out, they will be taken until the end of the day.” Katherine Riley CVU principal
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the end of the day,” CVU principal Katherine Riley said. “The consequences ramp up” for repeat offenders. Phone free rules are already in place at the elementary and middle school levels of the district. They will be a change at the high school, where students currently are free to use phones while not in class; however, even in-class enforcement
has become inconsistent. In an April survey of teachers, nearly 90 percent supported stricter regulation of student phone use at CVU. A survey on the subject emailed to parents in April showed 73 percent support for a phone free environment in school buildings, according to Riley. “I think it’s very clear there see PHONES page 8 258 Market Street & Shelburne Road, S. Burlington Maple Tree Place, Williston
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