Race to the finish
Flying high
Selectboard candidates tackle questions facing Shelburne
Shelburne’s Megan Nick wins bronze in Beijing
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Page 11 Page 8-9
Volume 51 Number 7
shelburnenews.com
February 17, 2022
Shelburne could face records lawsuit
Ice waves
MIKE DONOGHUE CORRESPONDENT
Saying the chairman failed to act in a timely fashion on two public records cases, the Shelburne Selectboard has voted unanimously to reject appeals from police chief Aaron Noble and former town planner Dean Pierce. Both Noble and Pierce attended the Shelburne Selectboard meeting last week expecting their unrelated appeals for access to public documents would be heard. Town manager Lee Krohn earlier refused to provide some public records sought by both men. Noble and Pierce were each contesting respective rulings made by Krohn in their cases, and both emailed their appeals to selectboard chairman Michael Ashooh as provided under the law. Selectboard member Mary Kehoe, a lawyer, noted that, under the Vermont’s
Fred Morgan captured these “ice waves” on the beach at Shelburne Farms, looking north.
See PUBLIC RECORDS on page 9
CVU emerges from January COVID-19 flare-up SCOOTER MACMILLAN STAFF WRITER
As the number of positive COVID-19 cases falls at Champlain Valley Union High School in February, school is getting a bit more back to normal. Since the infection rate at the school jumped dramatically after the holiday break, the month of January was spent with a modified schedule to reduce personal interaction at the school. When students returned for the first day after the holiday break, principal Adam Bunting said 30 students tested positive. To cope with the sudden rise in positive
cases, the school adjusted the schedule, including stopping the C3 portion of the day where the school sets aside 25 minutes for students to interact in activities that, before this year, were extracurricular and only happened outside of school hours. Bunting said the three C’s in C3 are community, clubs and connect time. It was adopted at the beginning of the school year to give students the opportunity to be involved in activities that some might be excluded from, particularly those who don’t have transportation other than the school bus. The C3 program was dropped from the schedule in January because, although there
are a wide variety of activities students can sign up for during this time, they almost all involve interaction that is not socially distanced. Last Monday, the school added the C3 period back into the school day. “We will be ready to pivot if our numbers change. It’s clear that our case count peaked in mid-January,” Bunting said in the school newsletter. “Our goal for the next month is to remain alert while maximizing opportunities for our students to engage with their academics, interests and friends.” Although the peak of 30 positive cases a day was alarming, it was short lived. He said within a week the number of positive cases
dropped to around 17 a day. “The number just kept dropping and dropping to the point where the past week we’ve had zero cases,” Bunting said. After the holidays the absentee rate was over 15 percent of students. There was also a high absentee rate among teachers. Now, they’ve had several days where the absentee rate is about 3 percent, which he said is lower than the percentage of students who would be absent on a normal winter day. During the peak of COVID-19 cases, an extra lunch period was added so the lunchSee COVID-19 on page 12