CVU students get say in what flags fly at schools
BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
The Champlain Valley School District board has amended its flag display policy in an effort to give students more say.
Previously, hopeful flag fliers would petition the school board, which maintained control over which flags could be raised at the schools. Now, students will be able to apply for approval directly with the superintendent or other designated building administrators.
According to Superintendent Adam Bunting, this change was prompted by the
students themselves.
“There’s a regular cycle that the board does to review policies to make sure that everything remains up to date,” he said. “The flag policy update is a little bit outside of that process, in that we had a student group approach the board.”
That student group was Shelburne Community School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA). While the board voted in favor of raising pride flags in the district in April of 2022, Shelburne Community School
Residents petition town for inclusion after board balks
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Charlotters have been known to exercise their civic engagement muscles frequently, but this time, with a new resident-led petition launched last month, it’s over diversity and inclusion in town.
A group of five community members are asking residents to sign onto the petition which asks the town to put the adoption of a declaration of inclusion statement out to voters on Town Meeting Day.
The initiative follows a statewide campaign in which 159 Vermont cities and towns, home to about 80 percent of the state’s population, have adopted the Vermont Declaration of Inclusion, which was conceived by a group of grassroots
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organizers in the Rutland area four years ago.
The initiative’s intent is to promote and reinforce a message to all visitors that Vermont is a welcoming community made of people who will treat strangers fairly, provide encouragement and support their interests.
When the group championing the statewide campaign came before the selectboard in August, it spurred a much larger and contentious conversation over inclusion in town. Some residents opposed to signing a declaration said that it might set a “terrible” precedent down the road. Other residents said the entire conversation highlighted
See PETITION on page 13
Shelburne Road, S. Burlington Maple Tree Place, Williston
PHOTO BY AL FREY
CVU’s Luke Allen drives to the hoop during the Redhawks’ 44-27 win over the Colchester Lakers on Friday in Hinesburg.
Flying ‘Hawk
See FLAG on page 13
Hinesburg negotiates lower rate after new transit bus partnership
BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
The Hinesburg Selectboard has successfully negotiated a lower contribution to Tri-Valley Transit for service on the 116 Commuter bus route between Middlebury and Burlington.
Instead of the $53,000 the transit service initially requested, the town, next year, will pay $45,000.
Hinesburg’s official relationship with Tri-Valley Transit is new. The town decided last June to leave Green Mountain Transit Agency, and Tri-Valley, which was already managing two stops a day in Hinesburg through a partnership with GMTA, agreed to take over full control of the route.
On Oct. 7, GMTA service between Burlington and Hinesburg ended and Tri-Valley buses began picking up passengers at Hinesburg Town Hall four times a day in each direction. The agency then sent its initial request for contribution to the Hinesburg town manager.
For Hinesburg officials, the ability to negotiate the service’s cost was part of the draw in switching to Tri-Valley from Green Mountain Transit. GMTA had provided Hinesburg with an annual member assessment and an expected municipal contribution. Tri-Valley, a non-profit, operates differently. All its commitments from municipalities are voluntary.
“They’ve always been voluntary,” Jim Moulton, executive director of Tri-Valley Transit, said. “And so we have developed working relationships with all of our municipalities, and we have developed what we call a ‘fair share formula,’ which is based on demographics and volume of service and a whole bunch of inputs.”
The initial $53,000 Tri-Valley Transit proposed was a flat continuation of what Hinesburg had been paying to GMTA the previous year, although Tri-Valley also aimed to continue service where GMTA had planned to cut routes and raise the rate by
four percent.
Transit services get most of their funding through federal and state grants, but according to Moulton, about 20 percent of their budgets come from local matches.
Although Hinesburg was not the only Chittenden County town outside Burlington with stops on GMTA’s system, it was only one of a handful of member towns required to pay into that local match.
“I think for Hinesburg,”
Rep. Phil Pouech, D-Hinesburg, who previously sat on the GMTA board, said, “we’re kind of sitting out there on the edge and saying, ‘Gee, we’re paying a lot for just a couple commuter routes, and it doesn’t seem fair.’”
When presented with the proposed budget and funding structure from Tri-Valley — nearby towns in Addison County are expected to provide $16,620 for the route — Hinesburg selectboard members argued during a Dec. 4 board meeting that this was yet another unfair burden on their town.
Moulton agreed.
“(Hinesburg) has carried a larger burden of funding public transit than any of the Tri-Valley Transit municipalities. And we philosophically feel that it’s reasonable that they should ultimately be carrying a fair share, not an unfair share.”
Moulton said Tri-Valley plans to make up the $8,000 deficit in its budget by building relationships with other municipalities and companies that benefit from the route such as South Burlington, Burlington, or the University of Vermont Medical Center, which employs many of the 116 Commuter riders.
For Pouech, keeping affordable transit in Hinesburg is both a financial and philosophical win.
“As Hinesburg grows, and hopefully these developments happen, having a link, a public transportation link, I think, is really important,” he said. “There’s not only people who need it for affordability. I think there’s people who want it as part of their community.”
New Act 250 board takes amid major changes to law
CARLY BERLIN VTDIGGER
Gov. Phil Scott has appointed the members of a new board that will administer Act 250, Vermont’s statewide development review law.
The new Land Use Review Board replaces the old Natural Resources Board, a shift mandated under Act 181, a major land-use reform law passed last year. That law takes steps to relax Act 250’s reach in existing downtowns and village centers across the state, and also lays the groundwork for extending Act 250’s protections in areas deemed ecologically sensitive.
But the new law also changes how Act 250 is administered. The Land Use Review Board is made up of five full-time members with relevant professional experience — a significant change from the former citizen-board structure. The new members have backgrounds in municipal and regional planning, environmental law and civil engineering. The review board will also play a key role in overseeing a years-long mapping process that will cement Act 250’s jurisdiction in the future. “Vermont faces a significant housing crisis and the work of this board will play a very important role in helping us address it, while protecting our beautiful landscape and environment,”
Scott said in a statement announcing the appointments earlier this week. “I’m confident this board has the diverse expertise, work ethic, and passion to tackle the work that’s required in Act 181 while also forwarding common sense improvements to the law to further our shared goals.”
The new board chair, Janet Hurley, currently serves as the assistant director and planning program manager for the Bennington County Regional Commission. Before that, she worked as a local planner throughout the state, in Manchester, South Burlington, Milton, and Westford, according to a press release from Scott’s office.
Since Act 250 was enacted in 1970, “it can certainly be credited with saving Vermont from rampant development,” Hurley said in an interview. “But it can also certainly be responsible for the depth of our housing crisis, because the burden of Act 250 permitting — often duplicative, especially in our town and village centers — just made housing development that’s affordable much more difficult to achieve for so many years.”
In the past, new housing projects would trigger Act 250 review based on how large they were, and how many homes a developer had already built in a given area during a given timeframe. That system could in fact lead to the sprawl
it was trying to prevent, prompting developers to avoid bumping up against Act 250 permitting by building “smaller scale, single family home development dispersed around our towns and villages,” Hurley said.
Act 181 shifts the permitting program toward “location-based jurisdiction,” meaning some areas of the state that already have robust local zoning review and water and wastewater infrastructure could be exempt from Act 250 altogether. That new system will take years to implement, though, and the transition will be one of the board’s primary tasks.
As that longer process plays out, lawmakers made temporary exemptions to Act 250 last year. They were designed to encourage dense housing in already-developed areas, and so far, the carveouts appear to be working as intended. Hurley thinks loosening Act 250’s rules around housing will make a big difference.
“The market just can’t bear the cost of construction at this point, and so any relief to the financing of new housing development is going to be meaningful,” Hurley said.
Still, members of the board think Act 250 will continue to play an important role in years to come.
The new Land Use Review Board, clockwise from top: Kirsten Sultan, Alex Weinhagen, Brooke Dingledine, Janet Hurley, Sarah Hadd.
Research continues on magic mushroom use
Rates are up to each service center and facilitator.
Studies suggest psilocybin, the fungifound psychedelic known as magic mushrooms, can assist patients with depression. Yet a clear plan to legalize and administer the drug for the increasing number of mentally ill people in Vermont has hit its second roadblock in one year.
A bill earlier this year originally would have decriminalized psilocybin and created a group to study the drug’s use in medicine, but legislators decided to pass a version only establishing the study group. After signing that bill into law in May, Gov. Phil Scott formed the Psychedelic Advisory Working Group, a group of nine mental health experts that met five times between July and October to review research on psychedelic use and programs in other states.
A couple of weeks ago, the group published its final report and did not agree on a plan to legalize mushrooms in Vermont. The group hopes to continue the conversation by studying research from across the country on psychedelics.
“My takeaway was there are a lot of qualms. The only operating state is in Oregon, where access isn’t easy,” Jessa Barnard, executive director of the Vermont Medical Society and a member of the advisory group, said. “The answer isn’t straightforward.”
Oregon Psilocybin Services, part of that state’s health agency, does not refer to its program as a treatment, Barnard said. Since psychedelics are federally illegal, Oregonians who administer the drug cannot do so in a medical facility and are not allowed to make diagnoses, she said. It usually costs clients $1,000 to $3,000 and up for a session at Oregon’s service centers, the regulated businesses where licensed professionals called facilitators guide people on their trip, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
ACT 250 BOARD
continued from page 2
“The housing crisis requires us to act swiftly, and that means a lot more housing, period,” said Alex Weinhagen, current director of planning and zoning in Hinesburg and another new board member. “But larger projects have impacts, and the whole point of having a development review process is to make sure that we acknowledge those and that the projects, you know, do what they can to minimize them.”
To Weinhagen, Act 181’s goals were to reform statewide development review so that “it’s smarter, it works better, it’s applied consistently across the state and it’s only used when it’s needed — and not used in places where there’s adequate local level development review happening,” he said.
The board will study whether appeals of Act 250 permits should be heard by the board itself or continue to be heard in state environmental court. Legislators
Barnard said many people from the working group had problems with Oregon’s model due to its inaccessibility and its separation from the traditional health care system.
The question of legality does not stop people in Vermont from using psychedelics.
“There is a cultural side to this story,” Tom Fontana, a substance abuse counselor at the University of Vermont’s Center for Health and Wellbeing, said. “Some people might argue legalization would take away some of the magic. I mean, it’s something we pick right off the ground. I imagine they could be messed around with in labs and eventually capitalized, like with opiates.”
Fontana compared the medical legalization of mushrooms to medical birth practices. People have been giving birth outside of hospitals for centuries, but that tradition doesn’t undercut the value of medical research to make childbirth safer. Magic mushrooms too have been used culturally for decades. The legalization process could make them more accessible and intertwine traditional practices with Western medicine, Fontana said.
Group member Rick Barnett, a licensed psychologist and substance abuse counselor in Stowe who serves on the Vermont Psychological Association board and founded the Vermont Psychedelic Society, wrote in an email, “I personally do not think keeping psychedelics illegal helps anyone.”
Barnett described how psychedelics can interrupt typical brain patterns and with the right preparation, settings and mindset can lead to positive life changes.
The group discussed research from John Hopkins Medicine’s Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Gül Dölen,
See THERAPY on page 16
and administration officials hotly debated the issue last session, arguing over which option would in fact speed up lengthy appeal timelines, and ultimately directed the new board to assess it further.
The other members of the new board include L. Brooke Dingledine, an environmental attorney in Randolph; Kirsten Sultan, an Act 250 district coordinator in the Northeast Kingdom with a background in engineering; and Sarah Hadd, a former local planner and current town manager for Fairfax, according to the press release.
The new board appointments took effect on Jan.1, and the board will begin its work on Jan. 27.
This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
NATALIE BANKMANN COMMUNITY NEW SERVICE
Total reported incidents: 29 Arrests: 4
Dec. 22 at 7:54 a.m., an alarm was activated Route 116.
Dec. 22 at 10:19 a.m., officers assisted firefighters at a house fire in St. George.
Dec. 23 at 3:13 p.m., an officer assisted the Shelburne Police Department with a crash investigation involving a stolen car from Hinesburg.
Dec. 23 at 6:04 p.m., after a traffic stop on Route 116, Francis Harris, 61, of Hinesburg, was arrested for driving with a criminally suspended driver’s license.
Dec. 23 at 8:40 p.m., a car drove off the side of Palmer Road.
Dec. 24 at 10:40 a.m., an officer served papers to a citizen on Jourdan Street.
Dec. 26 at 4:35 p.m., an officer assisted first responders with a medical emergency on North Road.
Dec. 26 at 7:52 p.m., a loose dog was turned in to the police
CRIME & COURTS
Hinesburg Police Blotter: Dec. 22 - Jan. 6
department and reunited with its owner.
Dec. 27 at 1:06 p.m., a traffic hazard on Buck Hill Road was reported.
Dec. 28 at 13:34 p.m., police responded to a single-car crash on Texas Hill Road.
Dec. 30 at 9:48 a.m., someone’s car broke down on CVU Road.
Dec. 31 at 10:24 a.m., someone was behaving mischievously on Route 116.
Dec. 31 at 11:21 a.m., police responded to a two-vehicle crash on Commerce Street.
Jan. 1 at 4:01 p.m., a parking issue on Hillview Terrace was investigated.
Jan. 1 at 8:33 p.m., an officer conducted a traffic stop on Route 116 and arrested David Macomber, 48, of South Burlington, for driving with a criminally suspended driver’s license.
Jan. 2 at 7:00 a.m., police investigated a car theft on North Road.
Jan. 2 at 11:14 a.m., someone
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reported suspicious activity on North Road.
Jan. 2 at 11:38 a.m., more suspicious activity was reported on Enos Road.
Jan. 2 at 8:08 a.m., police investigated a report of unlawful mischief on North Road.
Jan. 4 at 1:56 p.m., someone locked their keys in their car.
Jan. 4 at 6:32 p.m., an officer conducted a traffic stop on
Pond Road and arrested Clyde Bovat, 76, of Hinesburg, for driving with a criminally suspended driver’s license. The passenger, Sara Whritenour, 37, of Hinesburg, was also arrested for failing to appear in court and possession of cocaine.
Jan. 5 at 8:44 a.m., someone reported suspicious activity on Piette Road.
Jan 5 at 9:10 a.m., an officer assisted a motorist on Richmond Road.
Jan. 6 at 7:38 a.m., someone complained about a driver on Commerce Street.
Note: Charges filed by police are subject to review by the Chittenden County State’s Attorney Office and can be amended or dropped.
Woman to serve 18 years for her part in husband’s shooting death
MIKE DONOGHUE CORRESPONDENT
Angela M. Auclair has been sentenced in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington to 18 years in prison for her part in a conspiracy to kill her estranged husband in Hinesburg more than five years ago.
Auclair, 52, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit first degree murder and was sentenced to 35-years-to-life with all but 18 years suspended, including credit for about five years in custody.
Formerly of Williston, Auclair had moved to Bristol shortly before her December 2019 arrest.
The state agreed to dismiss other charges, including aiding in the commission of first-degree murder, obstruction of justice and two counts of violating her conditions of release.
Her son, Kory Lee George, 36, of Monkton, has been sentenced to 18-years-to-life for his part in the conspiracy to commit first-degree murder during the ambush shooting in July 2019.
When George entered his guilty plea in September 2023, the court was told he was prepared to testify that his mother fired all the fatal shots. Initial reports had theorized Auclair was home when her husband was gunned down.
The victim, David Auclair, had tried to crawl under his pickup truck to get away from the shooting by his wife, according to prosecutors. He was shot 11 times, police say.
His bullet-riddled body was found July 11, 2019, at the LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest trailhead parking lot off Gilman Road in Hinesburg. He was lured to the scene for his execution
through a pre-paid burner cellphone that was traced to a Milton store where George bought it, state police said.
David Auclair was the son of a well-known South Burlington family that operated a large farm on Vermont 116 (Hinesburg Road) near the Shelburne line.
As part of Angela Auclair’s probation terms, Judge John Pacht directed her to have no contact with her son and his wife or members of the victim’s family, one of whom spoke at the sentencing on behalf of the family and said she doubted Auclair was sorry for the killing.
Pacht also ordered Angela Auclair to have no contact with her former boyfriend, John Turner, who is still facing two federal gun charges from the homicide case.
Those charges stem from a residential break-in that Turner and George allegedly helped execute while Angela and David Auclair were having dinner at a Colchester restaurant with the victim of the burglary.
The homicide investigation initially pointed to George as the apparent shooter, after he stole several firearms from a Colches-
ter home the night before the fatal shooting.
Turner, 54, of Milton, reportedly dropped off George near the residence and returned a few minutes later to pick him up after he stole at least four firearms, Vermont State Police said.
The Auclairs were in a rocky marriage, and police said Angela Auclair had a romantic interest in Turner, who would visit their family home on Vermont 116 in Williston even when David Auclair was there.
Auclair and her son were headed for a rare joint trial in October 2023, but George entered a last-minute plea agreement a month earlier that required him to enter a guilty plea and promise to testify against his mother.
Auclair pleaded guilty last January to accessory to first degree murder and was scheduled to get the same sentence as her son, but last April she petitioned a judge to allow her to withdraw her guilty plea. She also wanted to fire her lawyer.
George, a five-time felon, also was convicted separately in federal court for illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the homicide.
During the investigation, Vermont State Police detectives said they determined George was in illegal possession of two firearms — the stolen 9-mm Beretta used in the homicide and a stolen 12-gauge shotgun, records show. George was sentenced to 89 months in federal prison on the gun count in November 2021. As part of the plea agreement, his federal sentence would run concurrently with his state time. He is currently serving his sentences at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.
Angela M. Auclair
OPINION
Working together to address Vermont’s affordability crisis
Guest Perspective
Amy Spear & Megan Sullivan
Each year, we at the Vermont Chamber of Commerce outline our legislative priorities with one focus in mind: creating the conditions to advance the Vermont economy. This year, our goals align closely with those voiced by Vermonters at the polls: addressing affordability, fostering economic growth and doing the hard work to solve Vermont’s toughest challenges. Affordability is at the forefront of these challenges. Vermonters are grappling with rising costs, driven by demographic pressures and systemic issues in areas such as education finance spending, housing, and healthcare. Based on data compiled by the Vermont Futures Project, our state must add an average of 13,500 people to its workforce annually through 2035 to keep the economy thriving in the face of demographic shifts. Meanwhile, meeting current housing demand will require tripling Vermont’s housing output to produce 36,000 new units by 2029.
challenging and compromises are required.
By remaining fully engaged and working through disagreements, participants honored diverse perspectives and paved the way for continued collaboration, providing a blueprint for how to accomplish meaningful change. This model of purposeful engagement — where people listen to different viewpoints, set aside rhetoric, and remain focused on shared goals — must be a cornerstone of how we move forward in Montpelier and beyond.
As we look ahead, whether in the Statehouse, the boardroom, or around the kitchen table, we must prioritize this spirit of cooperation to address our affordability crisis and build a stronger future for businesses and communities across the state.
“Our state must add an average of 13,500 people to its workforce annually through 2035 to keep the economy thriving in the face of demographic shifts.
The Vermont Chamber is committed to playing an active role in this process. We will advocate for thoughtful, data-driven policies that reduce costs, grow our economy, and create opportunities for all Vermonters.
work of making Vermont more affordable and sustainable for all. By doing so, we can ensure our state’s economy remains
Addressing this level of need is even more pressing given Vermont’s ranking as the third-highest state in the nation for tax collections per capita, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Property and individual income taxes remain Vermont’s largest sources of revenue, placing additional stress on families and businesses already struggling with limited housing options and rising costs. While band-aid solutions might feel appealing, real progress requires honest conversations, a shared commitment and a willingness to embrace compromise. We need solutions that tackle the root causes, not just the symptoms.
Last year’s success in modernizing Act 250 demonstrated how stakeholders with historically opposing sides commit to working together, and in doing so, real progress can be made, even when the process is
Vermont’s challenges, from housing shortages to healthcare costs, do not rest on the shoulders of any one party, organization or community. Making meaningful reforms will require all stakeholders — legislators, administration officials, advocates, businesses and individuals — to engage in difficult conversations and embrace compromise. Only through a shared sense of responsibility and shared accountability for the outcomes can we create the conditions for inclusive and forward-thinking problem-solving. Blame and partisanship must give way to open-minded discussion and creative ideas that improve Vermonters’ lives.
As we begin the new legislative session, the Vermont Chamber calls on our leaders to remain engaged in discussions, continue the dialogue, and keep conversations focused on results. It’s time to move beyond rhetoric and engage in the real
vibrant, our communities remain livable and our future remains bright.
Amy Spear is president of the
Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Megan Sullivan is the Chamber’s Vice President of Government Affairs.
COURTESY OF THE VERMONT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
From chattel to child to red-cloaked mother
Guest Perspective
Elayne Clift
Throughout the ages it’s been true. Now, here we go again. Sexism and misogyny 3.0. With the second reign of Donald Trump women will continue to be ignored, excluded, trivialized, objectified, assaulted, shamed and afraid.
In the truly old days women became chattel when nomadic societies ceased to be mobile and agrarian. Before yielding to land ownership, life meant that everyone in the family and community had respectable tasks. Men hunted, women planted and no one was treated as a lesser being. When land was claimed and “owned,” everything changed. Men became warriors who fought each other for everything that was on the property, including livestock, tools, furnishings, and women, along with
children, were regarded as a husband’s personal property.
Fast forward to modern times and notice how women are still treated as chattel. Here’s a true example, shared by Catherine Allgor at the National Museum of Women’s Art in 2012. A woman applies for a mortgage to buy a house. She is older than her husband, is senior to him in their careers and earns more money. She has bought houses before, her spouse has not. Still, in the transaction, she is listed as wife, and as such she is subjected to the legal practice of coverture, a term that still exists since colonial times.
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Based on English law, coverture meant that no female had a legal identity. A child was covered by her father’s identity, and a wife’s identity relied on her husband’s, which is why, until relatively recently, wives assumed their husbands’ surnames. Before that, wives were considered to be
“feme covert,” a covered woman who did not exist legally. (Sound familiar?) Originally that meant that females couldn’t own anything, had no rights to their inheritances or their children. They couldn’t work, enter a contract, or have bodily autonomy because husbands had the legal right to rape.
Coverture, Allgor explains, is why white women weren’t allowed to vote until 1920. They couldn’t serve on juries until the 1960s, and marital rape wasn’t a crime until the 1980s. In my personal experience during that decade, I was denied in-state tuition when I earned my master’s degree, because although I met every requirement for it, including being co-owner of a house, the college argued that I wasn’t legally a resident of Maryland because I didn’t earn half of our family income. It took me seven years to win the case against them.
stereotyping,” say the authors. “Similarly, people are more likely to use words like ‘superb,’ ‘outstanding, ‘remarkable’ and ‘exceptional’ to describe male job applicants. In recommending female applicants, people used fewer superlatives but less specificity.” Then fact is: Words matter.
The incoming president and his pals play all these cards in spades. Name calling, put downs, sexual transgressions and more will not suddenly quiet down or disappear. The likelihood is they will be exacerbated by an overblown sense of superiority and adoration by Trump’s second win. Every bit of misogyny and sexism women have had to endure in the past will be more pronounced and dangerous by this administration and its rightwing collaborators.
Women are still infantilized and treated as children. It occurs in the workplace, the marketplace, the academy, religious institutions and in homes when others, often men in domestic settings, treat women as errant children. Infantilizing women is linked to objectification because it sets up an unequal power and control situation.
Consider the fact that women have been robbed of bodily autonomy, lifesaving reproductive health care and policies that are geared to breeding rather than being. Already women are dying from preventable crises during pregnancy and miscarriage. That is nothing short of state-sponsored femicide.
Women, like words, matter, but not in the incoming administration.
Women in various settings threaten the androcentric paradigm that has us locked into various, unrelenting forms of patriarchy. Examples include using demeaning nicknames, suggesting that women don’t understand a topic, using physical gestures like a hug that they wouldn’t use to greet men. All of these gestures and words are meant to convey to women that men have superiority over the person who is subjected to these differentiations.
In 2018, the Harvard Business Review published an article written by four female researchers revealing that words in the business sector use significantly different ways to describe women versus men. Their research found that even young females are often described as “bossy” while that term is not applied to boys.
In adulthood, being called “ambitious” is an insult for women but not for men. “The problem is that the words used to evaluate women differ from those used to evaluate men, which reinforces gender
An article in The Brooklyn Rail published in 2017, shortly after the last election Trump won, captures the shocking reality that links the political situation ahead of us to the chillingly relevant book “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which suggests “parallels between a fictional totalitarianism, and the policies and ideological proclivities of Donald Trump’s administration. In many ways, these comparisons make sense: the world of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ contains the brutal objectification of women, widespread loss of civil rights, the manipulation of facts to control the political narrative, and an authoritarian state that fetishizes a return to religious or traditional values.”
Is it any wonder that the red cape symbolizes what women have feared since Roe v. Wade was overturned? Will history prove to be prologue?
Elayne Clift is a Vermont-based witer. Read more at elayne-clift.com.
Vermont ranks 4th in nation for homelessness rate
CARLY BERLIN VTDIGGER
As the number of people experiencing homelessness in Vermont continues to rise to record levels, the Green Mountain State’s per-capita rate of homelessness remains among the highest in the nation.
That’s according to a new analysis of the 2024 point-intime count, a coordinated, federally-mandated tally of unhoused people taken each January. The annual report on the count, which took place nearly a year ago, was released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development late last week.
The department found that about 53 out of every 10,000 Vermonters were unhoused when the count took place, putting Vermont fourth on the state-bystate list. In 2022 and 2023, it had the second-highest rate in the nation, a distinction that turned heads as Vermont’s homelessness crisis has grown more visible.
But Vermont’s shift in this oft-cited nationwide comparison shouldn’t necessarily be read as an indication of improvement locally, said Anne Sosin, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College who studies homelessness.
“I wouldn’t take it as a hopeful sign that it’s fourth instead of second,” Sosin said.
While Vermont’s homeless population rose 5% last year, to a record 3,458 people in January 2024, other states saw much more dramatic increases.
Catastrophic wildfires in Maui displaced thousands of people from their homes, the HUD report notes, with many sleeping in disaster emergency shelters when the count took place in January. Hawaii saw an 87% rise in homelessness year-over-year, with 81 people per 10,000 residents recorded as unhoused — the highest rate in the nation. New York shared the same rate, which increased this year, in part, due to an influx of asylum seekers to New York City’s shelter system, according to the report.
Across the country, the annual tally registered the highest number of people experiencing homelessness ever recorded since the pointin-time count began in 2007. Over 771,000 people nationwide were unhoused at the time of the count: a 18% rise from the 2023 count.
The “worsening national afford-
able housing crisis,” inflation, stagnating wages, and “the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits,” the report notes. And the end of pandemic-era supports, like the expanded child tax credit, have also likely contributed to the national rise in homelessness, it says.
The point-in-time count figure is generally considered to be an undercount. HUD does not tally people who are doubling up with relatives or couch-surfing, and people who are unsheltered are often more difficult to find.
Even as the number of people experiencing homelessness has ticked up, the HUD analysis reflects that Vermont has done a better job than most other states at keeping unhoused people indoors. Over 95% of Vermont’s homeless population was in some form of shelter as of January — either a traditional shelter, or a hotel or motel covered by an emergency housing voucher. Only neighboring New York had a higher rate of people in shelter, according to the report.
Still, the January tally recorded a jump in the number of people living unsheltered in Vermont from a year earlier. And observers expect the 2025 count, which will take place in a few weeks, will capture an even larger number of people sleeping outdoors or in their vehicles.
That’s because over 1,500 people were pushed out of the state’s motel voucher program this fall, after a series of cost-cutting measures went into effect. The program’s rules have since loosened for the winter, allowing some people to re-enter, though cold-weather access is more limited now than in previous years and both shelter space and motel rooms are scarce.
Already this winter, Burlington officials have observed more people living outside than this time last year, said Sarah Russell, the city’s special assistant to end homelessness. When the city opened an extreme cold-weather shelter for the weekend before Christmas — in part because the opening of its regular seasonal shelter has been delayed until the new year — “the number of folks that we saw there was huge,” Russell said. About 50 people showed up the first night,
CHART BY ERIN PETENKO, VTDIGGER
COMMUNITY
Community Notes
Champlain Valley School
reboots Celebrate the Arts
The Champlain Valley School District announces the return of Celebrate the Arts, a showcase of performing and visual arts from the district’s six schools, after a six-year break.
The 13th annual event is Thursday, Jan. 9, and will transform the hallways and theater into a vibrant gallery of student learning, innovation and inspiration.
“This event represents the collaborative efforts of so many facets of the CVSD community,”
Sarah Crum, the district’s director of learning and innovation, said. “This year builds on the tradition by bringing in new components and activities, showcasing incredible arts experiences of students alongside the abundant resources that enrich our community.”
From 5-8 p.m., visual and performing arts will be on display from students enrolled in art class-
es from across the district — Allen Brook School, Williston Central School, Shelburne Community School, Hinesburg Community School, Charlotte Central School and Champlain Valley Union High School.
Beginning at 5:30, musical performances will ring throughout the theater and “four corners” area, including from the CVU High School band, madrigal singers and jazz band, as well as a special presentation by cast members of the CVU fall musical, “Footloose.”
Beyond traditional visual and performing art, the CVU design and engineering technology students will be running demonstrations all evening, where the community can see welding, laser cutting and 3D printing demonstrations. CVU’s robotics team, the RoboHawks, will be showing off their competition robot and sharing their design process.
Transportation will be available, with buses from Charlotte Central
Elder Care online resource for families launches
CareForTom has launched the first comprehensive online resource dedicated to providing families with unbiased, expert-verified elder care information at carefortom.org.
According to a 2023 Family Caregiver Alliance study, 76 percent of family caregivers report needing more information about care options for their aging loved ones. CareForTom is a national initiative that addresses a critical gap in accessible resources for families navigating care decisions for aging loved ones.
According to a 2023 National Alliance for Caregiving survey, 74 percent of family caregivers spend Five to 10 hours per week searching across multiple websites for information about their loved one’s care needs.
“Despite having resources and workplace flexibility that many families lack, I still struggled to find reliable information when caring for my aging parents,” Shelburne’s Nicole Junas Ravlin, founder and board chair of CareForTom, said.
Unlike existing resourc-
School, Williston Central School and Shelburne Community School.
Local restaurants will be providing food and organizations that offer community and family resources will be in attendance to share more information.
Find a full schedule at cvsdvt. org/celebrate-the-arts.
es that may be influenced by advertising or profit motives, carefortom.org is committed to remaining completely free and unbiased. All content is meticulously researched and verified by subject matter experts, including health care professionals, elder law attorneys and experienced care providers.
“More than half of family caregivers in the U.S. report feeling they don’t have enough information to make confident decisions about care options,” executive director and CEO Monica Arnold said.
The organization collaborates with leading institutions and professionals nationwide to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness of resources. Following a successful soft-launch phase focused on content development and rigorous fact-checking, CareForTom will continue to release new resources monthly. The organization relies on donations and grants to maintain its commitment to free, unbiased, easy to access information. Learn more at carefortom. org.
Cathedral hosts pancake breakfast
The Cathedral’s Bishop DeGoesbriand Council will serve a pancake breakfast in the parish hall, 29 Allen St., Burlington, on Sunday, Jan. 12, from 9-11:30 a.m.
Feast on all your favorites: blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, French toast and more. Coffee, juice, and real maple syrup are included.
The cost is $ 10 per person, $5 for kids and $ 25 per family of four. Take-out containers available.
Shelburne Age Well hosts two luncheons
St. Catherine of Siena and Age Well are teaming up to offer luncheons on Tuesday, Jan. 14, and Tuesday, Jan. 21, for anyone 60 or older in the St. Catherine of Siena Parish Hall, 72 Church St., in Shelburne.
The check-in time is 11:30 and the meal will be served at noon. There is a $5 suggested donation.
The menu for Jan. 14 is a pork chop with pineapple sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, green and black beans, wheat bread and pears. The deadline to register is Jan. 8
The menu for Jan. 21 is macaroni and cheese, green beans, stewed
tomatoes, wheat roll and an apple. The deadline to register is Jan. 15.
Contact Molly BonGiorno, nutrition coordinator at 802-6625283 or mbongiorno@agewellvt. org
Tickets are also available at the Age Well Office, 875 Roosevelt Highway, Suite 210, Colchester. Restaurant tickets will be available for distribution for a suggested $5 donation.
Bernie Mitten creator will visit Teddy Bear Factory
Come buy a copy of the book “Bernie’s Mitten Maker” book, or have your book signed by author Jen Ellis, at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and Retail Store, at 6655 Shelburne Road, Jan. 25, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
More information, vermontteddybear.com/pages/vermont-teddybear-events.
Choral Chameleon presents a pair of Middlebury shows
The New York-based ensemble Choral Chameleon brings its rich harmonies and adventurous programming back to Middlebury’s Mahaney Arts Center this month for two very different choral experiences: a traditional choral concert on Saturday, Jan. 18, and a free “choral installation” on Wednesday, Jan. 22. The Mahaney Arts Center is located on the Middlebury College campus, at 72 Porter Field Road.
The Jan. 18 concert will kick off a weeklong campus residency with a program titled “Control” in the Mahaney Arts Center’s Robison
Hall. The music will explore the timeless and complex relationship between parents and children, and the eternal push and pull between generations — bound by love, yet separated by perspective. Featuring original choral works and arrangements by composers including Bela Bartók, Michael McGlynn, John Corigliano, Manuel de Falla, Duncan Sheik, and Janet Jackson, this evening of choral music examines the deeply nuanced bond between those who raise us and those we raise. This concert will also be streamed.
Then on Jan. 22, Choral Chameleon will transform the Mahaney Arts Center into a creative choral installation, with singers throughout the building. This world premiere of the new work “I Am” was written for Middlebury by Choral Chameleon’s founder and artistic director Vince Peterson, with a libretto by Ryan BauerWalsh.
Choral Chameleon’s Director of Education and Touring, Ronnie Romano (Middlebury class of 2020, and a prolific choral director locally) has gathered together a group of students and community singers who will perform alongside the guest artists. Audiences will move through the MAC at their own pace, discovering music as they go, and creating their own unique musical experience. This event is free and open to all.
The Jan. 18 concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $25 for the general public, $20 for Middlebury faculty/staff and alumni, $10 for youth, and $5 for Middlebury College students. This concert will also be streamed ($15 regular, $5 Middlebury College students).
COURTESY PHOTO
New York-based ensemble Choral Chameleon is bringing two very different programs this month to Middlebury College.
Showy cape primrose might be your next favorite houseplant
DEBORAH J. BENOIT
UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT EXTENSION
Streptocarpus are commonly known as cape primrose, but don’t confuse them with the common primrose (Primula vulgaris), a perennial plant that you may have grown outdoors at home. While the two share some physical similarities, their care requirements are quite different.
The common primrose in your garden is hardy in United States Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zones 4-8. Streptocarpus, on the other hand, are hardy in zones 9-11, so in cooler climates like ours they won’t survive yearround outdoors.
Streptocarpus are native to tropical regions in southern Africa, where they grow in wooded areas in the mountains. They prefer warmer temperatures and moderate or indirect light. While you could grow this plant outdoors in warmer weather, be sure to bring it indoors before temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Like many other tropical perennials, Streptocarpus are marketed as houseplants. They’re related to African violets and thrive with similar care and conditions. They are easy to grow and can provide colorful blossoms, even during the cold winter months.
Because they don’t require bright light, they’re ideal for
growing near a sunny window. Just be sure to avoid a direct southern exposure because strong sunlight can damage the leaves.
Don’t allow the soil to dry out completely. Likewise, don’t overwater. Water when the top layer of soil is dry, and avoid getting water on the leaves. Feed with a flowering plant fertilizer, or one intended for African violets, according to package directions.
Remove damaged leaves and faded flowers and stems as needed. Leaves also can be trimmed to remove minor damage.
Streptocarpus are compact plants. The long, velvety, green leaves grow in a rosette with trumpet-shaped flowers rising above the leaves. Flower colors include shades of red, purple, blue, white, yellow and variegated combinations. This houseplant can put on a flowery show for months at a time.
Mature plants grow to between 6-12 inches high and from 18-30 inches in diameter, depending on the variety. They will do well in a 5- or 6-inch pot.
Repot when the plant fills its container. Choose a light, well-draining potting mix such as one intended for African violets.
At that time, plants with multiple crowns can be divided. Separate the crowns by gently easing them apart and potting each section individually.
HOMELESSNESS
continued from page 7
and 80 the next.
“It’s just too cold for people to be living outside,” Russell said.
The HUD report does show signs of progress. Nationally, homelessness among veterans dropped 8% last year — to the lowest number on record, according to a HUD press release. That success can be chalked up to specific housing programs targeted at veterans, the report says, and is often lauded by homelessness advocates as a model for how to tackle homelessness among other groups.
“When there are more resources that are poured into, you know, housing supports for specific sub-populations of folks — the result of that is that it actually drives the numbers down,” Russell said.
The press release also notes several places that saw decreases in homelessness over the past year. Dallas saw its homelessness numbers drop after launching a new program to connect unsheltered people to long-term housing while closing encampments.
Chester County, Penn., has seen a nearly 60% drop in homelessness since 2019, after putting in place eviction prevention programs, expanding “housing first” training initiatives, increasing affordable housing groups, and providing fair housing education for migrant workers, according to the release.
When Vermont lawmakers kick off the 2025 legislative session next week, they will get their next chance to tackle the state’s homelessness problem. Their return comes after several deaths of people living outside that have captured the public’s attention in recent weeks.
“My question to Vermont legislators is: how are we going to keep the population experiencing homelessness alive while we make progress on solving homelessness as a state?” Sosin, the Dartmouth researcher, said.
This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.
Like African violets, streptocarpus can also be propagated from a leaf though the method is a bit different. Prepare a small seed-starting tray with a light, soilless potting mix that has been moistened. Select a healthy leaf. You can either trim off a 2-inch piece of leaf while still on the plant or harvest the entire leaf and cut it into 2-inch sections.
Draw a furrow in the potting mix and place each section into the potting mix with the lower cut edge beneath the surface. Firm the soil around the leaf section.
Place the container in a plastic bag or under a clear cover and put it in a warm, well-lit spot in indirect light. Open the container to allow excess humidity to escape or add water if needed.
Over the next four to six weeks, tiny plantlets should form along leaf at the soil surface. Be patient and allow them to form leaves and roots before separating from the mother leaf. When ready, put them into 2-inch starter pots.
With their easy care and long-lasting, showy display of flowers, streptocarpus may become your new favorite plant in your indoor garden.
Deborah J. Benoit is a UVM Extension Master Gardener from North Adams, Massachusetts, who is part of the Bennington County Chapter.
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PHOTO BY DEBORAH J. BENOIT
Streptocarpus, also known as cape primrose, is an attractive houseplant that is easy to grow and easy to propagate. To propagate streptocarpus leaves, the first step is to cut each leaf into two-inch sections.
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CVU hoops stays undefeated as team enters the new year
LAUREN READ
CORRESPONDENT
Girls’ basketball
Champlain Valley 63, Plattsburgh, N.Y. 23: The Champlain Valley girls’ basketball team won its fifth game of the season on Saturday, beating Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Zoey McNabb had 23 points to lead the Redhawks (5-0), while Rose Bunting added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Kaitlyn Jovell dished out five assists.
Boys’ basketball
Burlington 71, Champlain Valley 35: Champlain Valley dropped its second game in a row on Friday, falling to Burlington 71-35.
Luke Allen led the way for the Redhawks with 14 points, while Owen Scott added 12 points.
CVU falls to 3-3 with the loss.
CVU also fell to Mount Mansfield on Monday Dec. 30, losing by one point, 49-48.
Connor Dubois had 13 points in the loss for the Redhawks.
Girls’ hockey
Missisquoi 3, Champlain
Valley/Mount Mansfield 1: The Champlain Valley-Mount Mansfield girls’ hockey team fell to 2-4 with a loss to Missisquoi on Saturday.
Boys’ hockey
Hartford 4, Champlain Valley 1: The Champlain Valley boys’ hockey team fell to Hartford on Saturday.
The Redhawks, who got a goal from Brady Jones, moved to 0-5 with the loss. Jessie McCary stopped 29 shots in the net.
The Redhawks also fell to Spaulding, 4-2, on Monday, Dec. 30.
Gymnastics
The Champlain Valley gymnastics team hosted a dual meet on Saturday and swept the top spot in every event to get the win.
Dasha Gaina came in first on the floor and earned first place in the all-around. Leah Fortin came in first on vault and Warner Babic finished in the top spot on bars and beam.
Babic came in second on vault, Gaina was third in vault and Fortin finished in third on floor.
PHOTOS BY AL FREY
Left: Alex Montgomery drives to the hoop in Saturday action versus Plattsburgh. Above: CVU’s Rose Bunting looks for a pass in a double-up of Plattsburgh.
OUTDOORS
Bark helps the trees weather the winter
The
Outside Story
Catherine Wessel
When I think about winter survival, my mind first goes to wildlife: field mice curling up in nests, chickadees flocking to bird feeders, and amphibians burrowing into the mud.
Rarely do I think about the adaptations of our northern species that can’t grow thicker fur, fluff up their feathers, or go underground. Trees, for instance, face the same freezing temperatures, wet weather, and harsh winds, all with the added challenge of not being able to move.
One way trees endure winter is through adaptations in their bark. With the deciduous leaves long gone, the winter forest has been laid bare, giving us the perfect conditions to attune ourselves to the strategies of tree bark.
Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) is one of the most familiar characters on a walk in the winter woods. Its distinctive bright white, straight trunk stands out against the blue sky on clear days and is easily distinguished by its bark that peels off in horizontal curls.
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) also have light-colored bark and can thrive at this northern edge. Some species with light bark have the added advantage of bark that can photosynthesize in winter; aspen and paper birch are notable for this ability. Multiple adaptations ensure that trees are well prepared to survive the northern winters.
American beech (Fagus grandifolia) can also photosynthesize through its bark, although it doesn’t grow as far north as these other species. Its range extends from Florida to Quebec and into the Midwest.
Though it may be counterintuitive, the bark reflects heat and prevents the tree from warming up too much, protecting it against damage from changes in temperature.
When healthy, it has smooth, unbroken gray bark, and can live to 400 years old. Beechnuts provide important mast for a variety of wildlife species and were once the primary food source for the now extinct passenger pigeon. The thin bark on American beech can photosynthesize, even in temperatures below freezing, giving the beech a bump in energy to help sustain it through this season.
It is also one of our northernmost hardwoods. Ranging across Canada and the northern United States, and occasionally found as far south as North Carolina, the paper birch is notable for surviving nearly to the tree line in the arctic, a place where few hardwoods can reach. Part of its success lies in its white bark: though it may be counterintuitive, the bark reflects heat and prevents the tree from warming up too much, protecting it against damage from changes in temperature.
This adaptation is especially important in winter, when fluctuations are extreme between dark, cold nights and sunny days with no cover. Regulating temperature is essential for avoiding injury, such as sunscald and frost cracks, and this adaptation is so effective that arborists sometimes wrap light-colored material around planted trees that have dark bark to protect them.
Although this adaptation helps the tree throughout winter, photosynthesis through bark becomes most active in the “vernal window,” the shoulder season between winter and spring, after snowmelt and before leaf-out, when trees need energy for new growth.
While thicker bark on many tree species prevents sunlight from reaching the photosynthesizing cork skin, this bark offers a different benefit by protecting and insulating the tree from temperature changes. Michael Wojtech, author of Bark, refers to the thick platelike bark of the eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) as “radiator fins.” These blocky sections of bark increase surface area for air to move around, distributing heat and maintaining even temperatures. Because hemlocks retain their needles all winter, little sunlight reaches bark anyway, so this adaptation serves this tree well. Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) has similarly thick and furrowed bark.
With the distraction of other growing things gone for the season, winter is an ideal time to turn our attention to tree bark and admire not only the great variety of subtle colors and textures, but also to ponder how these qualities facilitate different strategies for surviving the winter.
On your next walk through the winter woods, you may notice the shreddy bark of hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), the great diamond ridges of white ash (Fraxinus americana), and the burnt potato chip bark of black cherry (Prunus serotina). How do each of these types of bark help the trees?
Catherine Wessel is the assistant editor at Northern Woodlands. Illustration by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: nhcf.org.
continued from page 1
much-needed change within a town made up of residents who are mostly rich, white and old.
After hearing those split opinions, the selectboard created a subcommittee tasked with recommending whether the original declaration of inclusion — or an alternate declaration drafted by the group — should be brought to a townwide vote. But after two meetings with the three-member working group, spearheaded by selectboard member Natalie Kanner, participants couldn’t reach common ground and with no resolution in sight, voted to dissolve itself placing the issue back on the laps of the selectboard. That is, of course, until the petition was launched.
Both of the meetings of the working group were well attended, particularly the second meeting in December in which over a dozen residents packed the room to voice support for the inclusion statement. In fact, according to meeting minutes, not even one resident spoke against the town adopting such a statement.
But, since Kanner was not a voting member of the group, the three-person committee had varying opinions on how to move forward.
“I can speak only for myself, but there was a sense that more conversation wasn’t going to change the outcome,” Nina Regan, a member of the group, said. “Natalie did ask, ‘Do you want to have another meeting?’ And the answer was no, but it’s not because we don’t care, it’s because people were locked in their positions and really every single concern or question about the declaration of inclusion statement was addressed in a very thoughtful way at our two meetings.”
After the working group voted to dissolve itself, the selectboard in December made no concrete decision on how it would move forward. Concerned that the topic would be left to die, resident Rachel Daley, who’s been vocal at meetings supporting the inclusion statement, started posting on social media about the idea for a petition. And it turned out, another
neighbor, Joel Cook, had similar ideas.
“I felt like a petition was the one sort of matter recourse we had,” Daley said, adding that she felt that the democratic process was being maligned when the selectboard didn’t make the decision put it before the voters. “This is just a vote. This is just a petition for a vote for Charlotte voters to have their voice for the democratic process to be honored. This is not asking people to say yes, they want to vote one way or the other.’”
The petition, which requires residents to sign their name and provide an address, has been circulated through neighborhood canvassing and posted in public places like the Old Brick Store, Spear Street Corner Store, the charlotte library, town hall and the senior center.
According to state law, petitions must get 5 percent of voters to be considered for a town vote. For Charlotte, that number is 180.
But for Regan and Daley, the petition will hopefully only act as a backup plan, should the selectboard not make its own decision to put it before the voters.
“For me, the ideal situation is that the selectboard takes a vote on the current declaration of inclusion statement and votes to just adopt it. Period,” Regan said. “This, to me, should not have to go to a town vote because in the end, the selectboard has the authority to actually make decisions for the greater good.”
While two members of the working group voiced some concern over how the two meetings were run, Kanner said she went into the entire conversation open and willing to look at all options that could be best for the community. But ultimately, she said, “the town coming out and unambiguously declaring that we condemn discrimination should have been easy.”
“Overwhelmingly, what I heard was that they wanted this statewide initiative. That’s not everybody, but overwhelmingly,” she said. “And so, at the end, I did land and believed that that was the best course of action.”
FLAG
continued from page 1
remained without a flag displayed for months. Protocol required that only three flags could fly on their singular flagpole and another pole had to be installed in order to raise additional flags.
The school eventually ended up taking down the Vermont state flag in order to raise the pride flag alongside their U.S. and Black Lives Matter flags while waiting for the additional pole to be installed, but the confusion around the process led the SAGA students to go before the board to express their frustration with how long they had been trying to get the flag displayed and ask for clarity.
In addition to this frustration from the students, last winter, the board discussed whether to continue flying the Black Lives Matter flag, which they had voted to raise at all the schools after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. The issue was initially raised by community members, and the conversations it prompted brought the board to consider a direction that forefronts student input.
The policy they put in place last month is intended to do just that.
“What I’m excited about in this policy change is that it puts the administration in a listening and learning position,” Bunting said, “for our students and with our students, and I think it increases student agency and voice.”
The superintendent’s office will only accept applications from recognized student groups and each will have to include a proposed timeline for flying the flag, a state-
ment about how it aligns with the school district’s vision and mission, and a planned educational element.
That might include something like an informational assembly or a formal flag raising ceremony. The idea, said Bunting, is to make sure the symbols being raised aren’t done so as tokens, but rather carry meaning and context. There is a Jan. 17 deadline for student groups to apply to keep current flags raised.
Although the school board discussed the possibility of taking down the BLM flags last year, with the new policy, CVU’s Racial Alliance Committee plans to apply to keep it flying at their school. Jacklyn Whittier, a junior from Williston and a student representative to the school board, said she is hopeful about the new policy and that, in addition to the BLM flag, CVU might start flying a pride flag as well.
encourage them to take action on flags they want to see at their schools. Bunting set up a meeting with students this past week to talk through their recommendations on enacting the policy.
The new policy may open the door to flags coming down if there are no student groups interested in supporting them, and Bunting said that he is keeping that in mind, but he hasn’t heard from any students about it yet.
“What I’m excited about in this policy change is that it puts the administration in a listening and learning position,”
— Adam Bunting
“As we adopt the new policy, we want to be clear that while it’s important that our student groups define the values that are important to them, I want to make sure that, because there’s a new policy coming in place, people don’t feel like they’re being marginalized as we move forward,” he said.
Whittier is aiming to connect with students in the GSA to talk about getting the pride flag up within the next year, she said, “because especially with this new policy, I’m hoping that it’ll be a lot easier to get it raised.”
The superintendent and school administrators have been working to communicate with student groups about the new process and
ANTIQUES WANTED
According to Whittier, students generally feel positive about the changes, especially because the push for change initially came from the students themselves.
“(Students) are excited and about it being more of a student voice, which is really nice to have, especially (the board) having to review the policy and taking in student voice,” she said.
The new flag policy will go into effect at Champlain Valley Schools on March 5.
PHOTO
Champlain Valley Union High School students raise a Black Lives Matter flag in 2020.
a professor at University of California, Berkeley who spent much of her career as a John Hopkins neuroscientist, has helped lead research that suggests psychedelic trips can help people be more capable of unlearning bad habits and thought processes.
“It hits the cure, not the symptom management,” said Fontana as he described how psychotherapy directly following a trip can help patients use the insights from their experience in daily life and unlearn unhelpful thought patterns.
While the focus of the state working group has been psilocybin, the group briefly discussed how ketamine therapy is used in Vermont to treat patients. Ketamine, a more accessible drug than psilocybin, since it can be legally prescribed by doctors, and is used in multiple locations across Vermont to treat mental health struggles.
Dr. Hobie Fuerstman, a friend of Barnett’s, works for Preventive Medicine in Colchester, administering ketamine IV therapy. The medication works alongside therapy in the same way you might pair “steroids and bodybuilding,” he said, making an analogy.
“The experience itself is not the primary thing. It drives changes in the brain no matter the specific dosing,” Fuerstman said. “This isn’t (just) to have some trip. There are literal neurochemical benefits — our research shows it.”
The advisory group hoped to develop a plan to better support patients who had or
planned to take psychedelics on their own, Barnett said. Continuing the conversation and attempting to chip away at the stigma associated with psychedelics was one of
Barnett’s main hopes with the group. Said Barnard, “It is not as much about talking about how to use it, but how it’s already being used and what information
we have about how to support those using it.”
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
PHOTO BY ANNALISA MADONIA