State senator delivers speech duing protest in Montpelier
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Students direct trio of one-act plays
“Well, I can hardly eat muffins in an agitated manner, can I?” Clark Clark, as Algernon Montcrief in the “Importance of Being Earnest,” declared on stage during a dress rehearsal of the play at
Champlain Valley Union High School last week. Clark then continued happily munching on a muffin to laughter from those in the scattered audience.
“The Importance of Being Earnest” cast members were taking their turns to rehearse on the school’s stage — it was one
of three one-act plays the students put on this past weekend, as well as “Game Night” and “Hurry Up and Wait.” All the plays were entirely student directed, each led by a pair of directors in their senior
See ONE-ACT PLAYS on page 2
Holding the line Librarians grapple with uncertainty over federal fiats
DARR
BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITERS
On a particularly balmy spring day last week, a woman was meandering around the Charlotte library when Margaret Woodruff, the library director and friendly face around the building most days, approached her to ask if she needed any help. The woman explained that she had just gotten into town to scout a property she’s looking to buy.
It seemed fitting that Woodruff was one of the first people to greet her in her new town, and that one of the first places she visited was the local library.
News for librarians across the country has been far less bright in recent weeks. Woodruff and several other library directors across Chittenden County have been grappling with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order seeking to eliminate “to the maximum extent” the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.
Last week, the institute placed its entire 70-person staff on administrative leave.
“We have never had to think about having to defend ourselves as an institution before,” Woodruff said. “We’ve never considered libraries to be the ‘bad guy.’ It’s really so unprecedented.”
In Vermont, the institute provides roughly one-third of the state’s Department of Libraries’ funding, which in 2024, amounted to roughly $1.2 million, said Commissioner and State Librarian Catherine Delneo.
Those federal funds support a slew of shared services within the state, from the interlibrary loan program — the service that moves books and other materials across the state’s libraries and libraries across the nation — to the ABLE library service for the blind and visually impaired, online databases, as well as other resources and professional development for library workers.
Delneo said the state department has been using the Institute of Museum and Library Services funds to provide grants of about $680 annually to help offset local courier costs for the interlibrary loan service for 116 public libraries
See LIBRARIANS on page 12
PHOTO BY BRIANA BRADY
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year at the school: Jay Kring and Vivian Volzer, Autumn Miller and Ace Caldwell, and Mira Novak and Hannah Stein, respectively.
“It’s very hands off. The students are the ones who choose the plays. They decide a vision of the piece, the costumes, the sets, but I’m here to supervise and guide them,” Elisa Van Duyne, CVU theater director, said.
In taking on directing, the students became familiar with parts of the theater process that they haven’t had control over as performers. They not only blocked every scene and worked with their peers on delivery, but they also coordinated with lighting and sound and picked out costumes and props.
In their blocking, the students leaned into moments of physical comedy, such as in the final moments of “Hurry Up and Wait”
as cast member after cast member piled into a makeshift taxicab, bringing together different characters from the series of vignettes that make up the play.
“It’s been very interesting seeing how things come together. If you’re actually in a show, there’s plenty of scenes you don’t really know a lot about because you’re not on stage. I feel like I’m getting the big picture, which is a lot different,” Volzer said.
For many of the student directors, taking on casting and giving feedback to their peers proved to be some of the most difficult moments. However, Miller said that for her and co-director Caldwell, of “Game Night,” it also gave them an opportunity to shine a light on some of their peers. Miller mentioned their choice to cast Nathanael Akselrod as one of the main roles.
“I’ve loved seeing him come out of his shell. He’s a freshman, and he only had one line during ‘Footloose.’ And I remember watching him from the sidelines and being like, ‘OK, I know that he’s going to be a good actor,’” Miller said.
Novak and Stein, in their roles as directors, decided to start each rehearsal with an icebreaker. They wanted to build camaraderie amongst the cast, and the friends said it ended up being one of their favorite parts of the whole experience.
“It’s always something kind of small, but that’s kind of our first thing, we start just like sharing about each other and just really listening to each other. And I feel like those kind of experiences are so unique, especially now when we’re all on our phones,” Novak said.
COURTESY PHOTOS
Top, CVU students rehearse “Hurry Up and Wait.” Bottom, identity confusion abounds in “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
Schools not required to show compliance with anti-DEI rules
ETHAN WEINSTEIN VTDIGGER
Following a federal directive that schools ban “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion-related programs, the Vermont Agency of Education last Friday asked school districts to submit compliance certifications.
But just three days later, after initially defending and clarifying the decision in the face of public backlash, Education Secretary Zoie Saunders backtracked late Monday afternoon, informing superintendents the state would instead send a single statewide certification.
“To be clear, the Agency of Education and the Attorney General’s Office continue to support diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in our schools. Our communication on Friday was intended to make you aware of the directive from the U.S. Department of Education regarding Title VI,” Saunders wrote Monday afternoon, “and to reinforce that diversity, equity, and inclusion practices are lawful and supported in Vermont. In no way, did AOE direct schools to ban DEI.”
So why all the confusion?
On Friday, Saunders told school district leaders they had 10 days to submit their certification, but also said the agency believed certification required only that districts “reaffirm … compliance with existing law.”
That communication came in response to President Donald Trump and his administration, who have threatened to withhold funding to public schools that fail to comply with the expansive directive.
A letter dated April 3 from the U.S. Department of Education said noncompliance with the diversity programming ban could result in schools losing a crucial stream of money meant to support economically disadvantaged students, known as Title I, among other sources of federal dollars.
The letter cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in schools based on “race, color or national origin,” and cited a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court Case against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that restricted affirmative action. Saunders, in the letter to
district leaders, wrote that the federal restriction includes “policies or programs under any name that treat students differently based on race, engage in racial stereotyping, or create hostile environments for students of particular races.”
Programs highlighting specific cultures or heritages “would not in and of themselves” violate federal regulations, the letter said. “We do not view this Certification to be announcing any new interpretation of Title VI,” Saunders wrote, adding that the agency’s “initial legal review” determined the federal letter only required the state to “reaffirm our compliance with existing law.”
But guidance from the federal education department cited by Saunders seems to restrict a variety of practices, arguing that school districts have “veil(ed) discriminatory policies” under initiatives like diversity programming, “social-emotional learning” and “culturally responsive” teaching.
Following news of the agency’s letter to districts, Saunders released an initial public statement around 3 p.m. on Monday saying the federal demands would not require Vermont’s schools to change practices. And in that communication, Vermont’s top education official gave no indication the agency would alter its request for districts to confirm their compliance with Trump’s directive.
“The political rhetoric around this federal directive is designed to create outrage in our communities, confusion in our schools, and self-censorship in our policy making. But we are not going to allow the chaos to control how we feel, or how we respond,” Saunders said in the statement. “Our priority is to protect Vermont’s values, preserve essential federal funding, and support schools in creating positive school environments free from the type of bullying and manipulation we see in our national politics today.”
In the same press release, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said Vermont was in compliance with federal law.
“We will continue to protect Vermonters against any unlawful actions by the federal government,” Clark said.
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Shelburne sewer plants on alert after discharge
BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
The Agency of Natural resources put out a couple of alerts last week concerning under-treated discharge coming from Shelburne’s Crown Road wastewater facility and a positive result for E. coli in the discharge from the town’s Turtle Lane facility.
Neither alert should be cause for worry, Chris Robinson, the town’s wastewater supervisor, said.
“It’s not that serious. We failed our E. coli sample, and we don’t exactly know why, but we re-sampled right afterwards, and everything was fine. So sometimes it can be contamination of the person taking the sample, contaminates in the bottle,” Robinson said.
Whenever the town fails a test, public works employees always follow it up immediately with two consecutive tests — both of which passed in this case.
discharging next to a beach. We’re not discharging right next to a water supply where somebody is going to be drinking the water or swimming,” he said.
Robinson was more concerned with the failure of an effluent valve this past week. The valve allows the facilities to draw down the tanks where they treat the wastewater. The failure in this case called for all hands on-deck. According to Robinson, it was the result of old equipment, a problem Shelburne has been facing for some time.
At the last selectboard meeting in March, Robinson informed the board that he didn’t think the Turtle Lane plant’s centrifuge was going to make it until the planned upgrade to Shelburne’s wastewater facilities go into effect, potentially forcing the town to budget an additional $35,000 for next year.
While that upgrade is set to begin this year, the full upgrade won’t be completed for about three years.
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As far as the discharge on Crown Road, they needed to adjust the chlorine levels. Robinson also pointed out that the facility discharges directly into Lake Champlain.
“The dilution factor there is so huge in that mixing zone. And we’re not in a recreational time of year. People aren’t out. We’re not
“It’s nice to know there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Not to say that there’s not going to be little things that we’ve got to work out,” Robinson said. “But we won’t be dealing with equipment failures on a regular basis like we are right now.”
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OPINION
Stand tall together because ‘courage is contagious’
From the Senate Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale
Chittenden Southeast Sen Kesha Ram Hinsdale was one of the featured speakers at Saturday’s “Hands Off” rally in Montpelier. Here is her full speech.
our mouths,” we are saying: Let people name their oppression. Let people share their lived experiences. Let people call out injustice — because staying silent will not protect us.
ity, I want to add something else. While we demand hands off our rights and our dignity, we must also be hands on with our communities.
I am Senate Majority Leader Kesha Ram Hinsdale and I’m so proud to be standing here with all of you — neighbors, organizers, advocates, everyday Vermonters — who are showing up with courage, conviction, and heart. I’m especially proud to be here with my daughter Mira, who is able to look out and see those who will watch over her, will pave the way for her, and will protect her rights more than I hope she will ever know.
She’s also going to be two next week, and she’s working on doing something that she could teach to Donald Trump and his cronies: Keeping your hands to yourself.
So, we are here today, across Vermont and across the nation, with one message, loud and clear: Hands off.
Hands off our mouths. We will not be silenced. We will not be scared into the darkness. We will protest injustice, we will speak truth to power, we will tell our stories, and we will continue to demand our country back.
Because let’s be clear: it has never been more consequential to exercise our freedom of speech than it is right now. Across this country, voices are being silenced, books are being banned, and neighbors are being pitted against each other in unfounded suspicion and fear.
This is a moment to really feel the weight of the Zora Neale Hurston quote, “If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
So, when we say “hands off
And for those of us with privilege — those who can speak without risking our safety, our jobs, or our lives — it is our responsibility to do it loudly, boldly and without apology. We must use our voices not just as shields, but as megaphones for those who are being silenced.
Hands off our rights. We will not accept attacks on immigrants, on students, on young women like Rumeysa Ozturk, who was abducted in broad daylight in Boston and is now due her day in court and her constitutional rights here in Vermont.
We will not accept attacks on our trans neighbors, and you should know that, despite our differences, we voted 30-0 to stand with trans and nonbinary Vermonters in the state Senate. We will not accept the rollback of abortion rights, voting rights, or any rights that let us live freely and fully.
Hands off our state. Vermont knows how to lead. We’ve led the way on civil rights. On environmental justice. On reproductive freedom. On free speech. We will not let federal overreach drag us backward. Not now. Not ever.
Hands on our neighbors. Hands on the hard work of care. Hands on the shoulders of people who need support. Check in on each other. Ask who’s struggling. Bring someone food. Speak up in rooms where others are silenced.
And to the protesters holding signs every day, rain or shine, in front of the Tesla dealership on Shelburne Road: thank you. You lift my spirits up and bring my blood pressure down every day when I drive home from the Statehouse. You are not screaming into the void or preaching to the choir — you are reminding us that we have the power when we stand together and do not back down.
And that reminds me of an image I’ll leave you with. Sequoia trees, the tallest trees in the world, don’t survive because they stand alone. They survive wildfires, storms and centuries of change because their roots reach out and intertwine beneath the surface — holding each other up, locking arms underground, refusing to fall.
That’s what we do here in Vermont. We reach out. We hold one another up. And we stand tall, together.
And hands off our democracy. We see what’s happening. And we won’t stand by while the rule of law is twisted, institutions are undermined, and our communities are divided. This isn’t about partisanship — it’s about principles.
We live by a motto in this state: Freedom and Unity. And that means we fight for each other’s freedom. We come together in unity when one of us is attacked. And we do not let anyone tell us who we are or what we stand for.
But while we are here together in this beautiful sea of human-
That’s what we do here in Vermont. We reach out. We hold one another up. And we stand tall, together, because, as vice president Kamala Harris reminds us, “Courage is contagious.”
So, let’s keep showing up — for each other, for our communities, and for our future. Hands off our rights. Hands on our communities. Freedom and Unity — now and always.
Kesha Ram Hinsdale, a Democrat from Shelburne, serves the towns of South Burlington, Shelburne, Charlotte, Hinesburg, Burlington, St. George, Underhill, Jericho, Richmond, Williston and Bolton in the Legislature.
Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale
Letters to the Editor
Congress needs to reach out to every American
To the Editor:
Until now, I have focused my government participation on my town, Shelburne, serving on our town’s selectboard and now on a town committee. I believe these are worthy activities, and I urge others to also volunteer. But alas, today, focusing only on our town affairs is equivalent to “arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Today, America is under siege. My suggestion to responsible Congress members: mount the biggest public relations campaign in our history.
Do it on every old-fashioned and every 21st-century outlet and medium in existence to counter the threat facing the USA. The threat is not a matter of conservative versus liberal. The president, aided by his cowardly followers in Congress, is clearly destroying America. They’re murdering almost everything America is, and what America stands for.
What Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are doing by holding events in purple regions, and what Sen. Cory Booker did via his 25-hour Senate filibuster, are a great start.
But it will take more. It will need most of the responsible Congress members to act together — and this still might not be enough.
So, Congress, leverage your strength. Initiate a gigantic public relations campaign. Reach for every living American. You can do it. You have the connections to labor, Hollywood, Madison Avenue and many patriotic citizens of wealth. If $100 million was raised in a campaign for a Wisconsin state court election,
raising sufficient funds for such a campaign should be a piece of cake.
Mount the campaign to educate the American people on how your policies will help — and how the president’s policies harm — and do it especially in regions where the majority voted for the president. Laser-focus only on the issues that affect all of us, to put maximum pressure on the president’s (presently in the majority) cowardly Congress members.
Realistically, it will not impress all of them. But it only takes a few in Congress to turn the tide.
Kenneth Albert Shelburne
Governor is doing exactly what he said he’d do
To the Editor:
Governor Scott’s recent veto of the Budget Adjustment Act signals the end of one-sided, policy-driven bills forced through the Vermont Legislature. With Vermont voters deciding last November to eliminate the Democrat/Progressive supermajority in the General Assembly, we restored the mechanism of checks and balances that ensures bills are honestly and openly discussed and evaluated for the best interest of Vermont. Gone are the days when the supermajority-led Legislature could simply override and ignore a governor who received more than 71 percent of the popular vote — more than 266,000 votes.
Gov. Scott is now doing exactly what he said he would do
See LETTERS on page 11
Moving toward an affordable abundance agenda for Vermont
Guest Perspective
Matt Wormser
Oceans of ink have been spilled since last November around the root cause of Democratic electoral failures, which in percentage of legislative seats lost was larger in Vermont than any other state. A couple of recent books — “Abundance,” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, and “Why Nothing Works,” by Marc Dunkelman — offer both a compelling explanation of “what went wrong” with Democratic governance and a path forward for those still aligned with the goals, if not always the delivery, of the D side of the aisle.
The summary argument is that a series of well-intentioned policies in blue states have created such an unwieldy regulatory environment that Democrats can no longer realize their stated goals of affordability, environmental progress, education, healthcare and a public sector efficiently delivering for its citizens.
In Vermont we feel that directly — it’s disproportionately costly and difficult to build here. Most of the Champlain Parkway in Burlington is set to finally open this year, nearly 40 years after a significant section of it was initially finished.
Housing shortages mean we have among the highest rates of homelessness and housing cost burden of any state. This is paired with an equally high overall tax burden, driven by among the highest per pupil spending
nationally.
Lastly, we see a disproportionately high percentage of our workforce nearing retirement, challenging our economic vitality going forward.
How did we get here and more importantly, how do we best move forward?
• Housing: Legislators of both parties realize how stressed our housing market has been for many years, and they happily passed legislation to address this during the last session, with additional measures in the works. With that said, critical challenges remain with labor shortages and high interest rates that limit our ability to accelerate growth in housing.
• Financing: High interest rates test the viability of many projects, especially when coupled with our labor shortages and tariff-driven materials costs. Solutions might include a tax-advantaged state bond bank to help finance multi-family housing in our town centers at preferred rates.
• Developing skilled labor: A builder friend of mine said his labor costs are 30 percent higher in Vermont than in New Hampshire. As we enter the age of artificial intelligence, many predict that knowledge workers will see a larger and faster displacement than traditional trades. We should be driving career conversations from the onset of high school to have our kids examine futures beyond college as the only path to success. Apprenticeships in the trades for our high schoolers can both drive meaningful, high-paid
work in the early stages of their careers and help broaden career options going forward.
• Further permit reform: Some significant permitting reform passed in the last session. Assuming we continue to badly miss on our housing targets, lawmakers need to look hard at additional measures to accelerate permitting statewide.
• Governance: Since our founding, national debate has waged between Hamiltonians who believe in a strong, central government empowered to make decisions, and Jeffersonians, who are distrustful of that decision making. Much of the day-to-day activities of governance — roads, public safety, wastewater, etc. are managed by volunteer selectboards in Vermont, where our need for those services is increasingly regional and statewide in nature.
I serve on the selectboard in Shelburne, and that lack of scale, especially when much of our municipal labor force is nearing retirement, severely hampers our ability to deliver. Improved regional or statewide management of key public functions is urgently needed if we are to meet 21st century challenges.
• Education: One of the key points made in “Abundance” is the frequent inability to recognize tradeoffs in policymaking. An example here is the cost of not making tough choices to “right size” the number of schools in response to a steadily
See WORMSER on page 11
David Partridge
David Partridge died at Wake Robin Retirement Community in
Shelburne on March 31, 2025, one week after his 100th birthday. David was born on March 25, 1925, to Frank C. Partridge and Sarah Sanborn Partridge in Proctor.
David graduated from Westminster School in 1942. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years before joining the Navy, where he served for two years as an Aviation Electronics Mate. In 1946 he matriculated at the University of Vermont, earning a BS in electrical engineering in 1950 and a BS in business administration in 1951.
David worked at General Electric in Burlington from the fall of 1951 to 1955 as a quality
control engineer. Finding that a career with GE would be a corporate gypsy existence, he left in 1955 and bought a ski lodge in Stowe in 1956 with a partner. They named it The Yodler, and there he met guest Dolores Brock. They married in 1960 and, after deciding not to raise children in a ski lodge, David purchased Wyman’s, Inc., a petroleum dispensing equipment firm in Montpelier, in 1963. He sold the business in 1985 and, after working for the new owner, he retired in March 1989.
While at The Yodler, David served terms as Stowe lister and justice of the peace. Later, with three children in the Stowe schools, he joined the school
board from 1973-1982.
David was a member of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club, where he served as a director from 1982-1991. Interested in ski race timing, which was then done with hand watches, David developed an electric eye for the race finish in 1952, adding electric clocks in 1954 and ultimately transistorized eyes and clocks with printers. An avid skier, he enjoyed accompanying his children to ski races. In retirement, he skied a few runs most days, skiing into his 90th year.
David was an enthusiastic sailor. He was a part owner of a Friendship sloop while at UVM and sailed in the Bermuda Race in 1952. In 1953 he joined the Malletts Bay Boat Club where he kept a sailboat until 2016. He much enjoyed taking day sails with his family.
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After retiring, David and Dee started traveling. They particularly liked hiking in the Canadian Columbia mountains with their daughter, Laura. After moving from Stowe to Wake Robin in January 2008, they expanded their travels to more far-flung areas such as Antarctica and the Canadian, Norwegian and Russian Arctic areas, and Bhutan and China. David took two treks in his 70s in the Himalayas. At age 87, he climbed Huayna Picchu in Machu Picchu, Peru.
At Wake Robin, David soon became involved in its outdoor activities, which included the development of hiking trails and the eradication of campus invasive species. Foremost was the maple sugaring operation. He also served a term on the Wake Robin Board.
David is survived by his wife of 64 years, Dolores, and
their three children, Janet and husband Bruce Alvarez; David B. Partridge and wife Kathleen; and Laura Partridge; grandchildren Rebekah and husband Edward Ryan IV; Gregory Partridge and wife Maddy Kroot; Eliza Alvarez; Matthew Partridge and wife Alyssa; Madylin Partridge and Kathryn Partridge; and five nieces and nephews and their families. David was predeceased by his sisters, Frances Coulter and Ruth Partridge, and his brothers, Charles and Sanborn, all of whom resided at Wake Robin. The family is very grateful to Wake Robin for the great care and support he received from the staff in Linden during his later years. Memorial gifts may be made to the Wake Robin Employee Assistance Fund c/o Terri O’Brien, Business Operations Manager, 200 Wake Robin Drive, Shelburne, VT 05482.
Carol Elizabeth Young
Carol Elizabeth (Winkler) Young died at home on April 4, 2025. Carol was born in Newport, Rhode Island on December 18th, 1948, to parents Elsie (Booth) and John Winkler, nine minutes before her twin brother James Winkler. Her brother Richard Winkler was born almost 8 years later. The family resided in Stony Brook, N.Y., where Carol made several lifelong friends. Carol completed high school at Earl L. Vandermeulen in Port Jefferson, class of 1967, and attended St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in New York City, class of 1970.
She met Dennis in early 1970, and they married later that year, on Aug. 1, 1970. They lived in the city until moving out to Long Island. Carol was the beloved mother to two children — Josh, born in 1974, and Katy, born in 1979. Carol began in the visiting nurse service in NYC but spent most of her career in the infirmary of Little Flower Children’s
David Partridge
Carol Elizabeth Young
Community Notes
Shelburne May 13
Age Well Luncheon
St. Catherine of Siena and Age Well are teaming up to offer a luncheon on May 13 for anyone 60 or older in the St. Catherine of Siena Parish Hall, 72 Church St. in Shelburne. Check-in time is 11:30 a.m., and the meal will be served at noon. There is a $5 suggested donation.
May 13 menu: scalloped potatoes with ham and cheddar, carrots, wheat bread, strawberry and blueberry crisp with cream.
The deadline to register is May 6. Contact: Molly BonGiorno, nutrition coordinator, at 802-662-5283 or email mbongiorno@agewellvt. org. Tickets are also available at the Age Well office: 875 Roosevelt Highway, Ste. 210, Colchester, Vt. 05446.
Contra Dance presented by Queen City Contras
Atlantic Crossing (Peter Macfarlane, Viveka Fox, Rick Klein) will play and Don Stratton will be the caller during a contra dance at Shelburne Town Hall, 5374 Shelburne Rd., on April 25 at 6:45 p.m.
All are welcome. All dances are taught and no partner or experience necessary. Cost: $12 adults over 18; $5 kids 12-18 or low-income; under 12 free. Please bring a pair of clean soft-soled shoes to dance in and a water bottle to keep you hydrated.
Shelburne Parks and Recreation
Here’s what’s coming up at Shelburne Parks and Recreation, 5420 Shelburne Road, Shelburne, 05482.
• Davis Park Community Gardens: Located next to the Natu-
ral Playground at Davis Park on School Street, these are raised-bed gardens designed to provide better accessibility for those who may need it. The plots are much smaller than those at LaPlatte. Water is available on-site. Gardening is organic only — no pesticide or chemical use.
Applications are now being accepted at the recreation office. Plots will be assigned in early April, with planting starting in early May. Priority will be given to those who have accessibility needs until March 31.
Plot costs are $20 for an 8-by-3foot, 30-inch-high bed; and $25 for an 8-by-4-foot, 24-inch-high bed.
• Group Swim Lesson Program: In a new offering, the department partners with the Edge Sports & Fitness to offer preschool and learnto-swim lessons. The pool is located at 75 Eastwood Drive in South Burlington and is 81 degrees. A parent or guardian accompanies the child for the in-water lessons.
May session dates: Sundays, May 4, 11, 18. Cost (three lessons): $70 resident, $80 nonresident. Registration deadline: April 25. June and July session dates coming soon. Register through Shelburne Parks and Recreation.
• Summer Camp Spotlight on Drama Camp: An Imagination in Action workshop for kids’ 6th-8th grade level is a week-long creative adventure where young minds explore character creation, plot development, and scriptwriting (non-musical), July 28-Aug. 1, performance that Friday in the Shelburne Town Gym, directed by Sean Moran.
Through fun activities, acting exercises, and group collaboration, kids will bring their stories to life and build confidence in both writing and performing. The workshop wraps up with a final performance
ANTI-DEI RULES
continued from page 3
One neighboring state, meanwhile, took a different tack. Soon after the Trump administration sent states last week’s letter, New York announced it would not comply.
Vermont and other states’ responses to the federal government are due April 14, and the state agency said last week that its response was supposed to include school districts’ “compliance issues” and “the Agency’s proposed enforcement plans” for those districts.
Before Saunders, in consultation with Clark, decided to rescind the state’s request for districts’ certifications, the Agency of Education’s actions drew criticism from the public education community.
Representatives from the Vermont School Boards Association, Vermont Principals’ Association, Vermont Superintendents Association and Vermont-NEA, the state teachers’ union, met with state leaders Monday. They later penned a letter to Saunders and Clark calling Vermont’s approach to the federal directive “not workable.”
“Expecting individual super-
and celebration, showcasing their imaginative works. Open to 8-10 participants who will be in grades 6-8 next fall.
intendents to certify compliance based on a cover letter (that they have not yet seen) that clarifies the legal boundaries of their certification will lead to a patchwork of responses that could put Vermont and local school districts at risk,” the organizations wrote.
The coalition urged Vermont to follow New York’s lead and reject the certification process. That strong approach, they wrote, “would also send a powerful message to students and families across the state.”
Hours later, the Agency of Education appeared to heed their advice. In her late afternoon message to superintendents, Saunders wrote that “AOE has received feedback throughout the day regarding the need for clarity on the intent of the certification and the state’s specific response.”
“We understand that many in the community are concerned because of the political rhetoric surrounding DEI,” she added.
News of Saunders’ initial Friday letter spread quickly on social media over the weekend. Already, plans for a Wednesday protest had circulated online.
Registration Deadline: July 7.
Cost: $200.
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At least one district, Winooski, said it wouldn’t comply with the certification.
“I notified the Secretary that I will not be signing anything,” Wilmer Chavarria, the district’s superintendent, wrote in an email to staff shared with VTDigger. “I also requested that the state grow some courage and stop complying so quickly and without hesitation to the politically driven threats of the executive.”
Winooski’s school board will address the compliance certification at a regularly scheduled board meeting Wednesday, according to Chavarria’s message.
In Vermont, ethnic studies have been a larger part of the education landscape since the passage of Act 1 in 2019. The law, which the Legislature approved unanimously and Gov. Phil Scott signed, required public schools to incorporate ethnic studies into their curricula. The legislation charged a panel with making suggestions for better including the history and contributions of underrepresented groups in Vermont’s classrooms.
and upcoming special events on our website at shelburnevt.org/160/ Parks-Recreation. Call 802-9859551 with questions.
Dream Team
COURTESY PHOTO
Shelburne Community School hosted a multi-school three-versus-three basketball tournament last weekend, sponsored by the parent teacher organization. Schools from South Burlington, Charlotte and more joined Shelburne players in grades 4-8. Adults had their own tournament, too. The Dream Team, above, is a group of 5th graders that won the grade 4-5 boys’ tournament. From left, Xavier Brubaker, Jackson Birkett, Teo Johnson, Connor Owyang and Shea Sweeney.
Shelburne says ‘hands off’ to President Trump
BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
Karen Mikkelsen, 80, held a blue and white bullhorn to her mouth as she marched behind the line of protesters standing along route 7 in Shelburne last Saturday.
“Dump Trump!” she yelled.
“Dump Trump!” the crowd responded.
With an umbrella leaning against her shoulder to protect her from the rain, she repeated the refrain a few more times, the crowd echoing enthusiastically.
The Shelburne Hands Off protest was one of more than 1,400 events held nationally Saturday to protest President Trump’s policies.
“Somebody had posted and said that they needed someone to bring a bullhorn,” she said. “So here I am.”
According to a rough count, the Shelburne protest drew almost 500 people, many of them, like Mikkelsen, in their 70s or 80s. For a lot of protesters around that age, demonstrating against the government is nothing new. They’ve been shouting their dissent since the Civil Rights Movement or the Vietnam War, and through the women’s movement of the 1970s, the AIDS epidemic and Black Lives Matter.
“There was an older person who wanted to just stay in the village because it was going to be easier for her to come out. My husband is 90 this summer, and we decided that, because of the age population of Shelburne. that it may be a nice alternative to let us meet here,” event organizer Linda Gundel said.
More than a few older protest-
ers came armed with their own folding chairs or wheelchairs to make it easier to stay for the full two-hour protest.
Gundel is in her 80s. She said, having protested the Vietnam War, and feeling like they made a difference, one of the most concerning things about Trump, for her, is the jailing of protesters demonstrating against the war in Gaza.
The concept of the “Hands Off” protests were to pull several concerns into a single protest: telling President Trump, and his Department of Government Efficiency advisor Elon Musk, to get their hands off various long-standing federal programs or policies.
Concerns voiced at the Shelburne protest included social security, migrant labor, LGBTQ rights, bodily autonomy, libraries (see related, page 1), and democracy writ large.
While there was a lot of energy coming from the older folks at the Shelburne protest, the gathering was also distinctly inter-generational. Laura Gulick was there with her daughter and her grandchildren. Some high school students huddled together across from Village Wine and Coffee. Two young girls climbed up a tree to hold their signs. The older generations were teaching the younger ones how to let their government know that they didn’t agree.
Marcia Fowle, 89, stood behind her husband, who sat in a chair on the corner of Route 7 and Church St. holding a poster shaped like a stop sign.
“It’s important to show up,” she said. “It’s the sort of demonstration I’ve been doing all my life.”
PHOTOS BY BRIANA BRADY
The signs at Saturday’s “Hands Off” protest in Shelburne ranged from protecting trans rights to funding the U.S. Postal Service.
WORMSER
continued from page 7
declining enrollment. The result is that students from larger schools in effect pay to subsidize what amounts to a boutique education for schools with unsustainably small class sizes.
Simultaneously, kids from those very small schools suffer from a lack of opportunity, and taxpayers foot the elevated bill. Happily, lawmakers are actively debating substantial changes to both our district and education funding structures, and time is obviously of the essence.
There would be significant benefit for the state to take over functions best suited to centralized management — curriculum, HR, transportation, facilities, finance, food service, data and reporting — in short, most of the back-end functions that are less vital to manage at the school level. This would ensure consistency of service across the state, greatly improve our ability to measure success between our schools and help drive change where deficiencies are identified.
The case can be made to have one statewide school district to best drive accountability, rather than the patchwork and costly system we have today. Region-
LETTERS
continued from page 6
during the 2024 campaign: make Vermont affordable. The majority party legislators had forgotten how to cooperate and negotiate with the state executive branch and across the aisle to find common ground and the best solutions for Vermont. Overriding executive vetoes used to be easy, and no discussion or compromise was necessary.
When the Legislature had a supermajority, it didn’t have to acknowledge the governor’s or the minority party’s ideas and thoughts — or, for that matter, those of the voters — in the lawmaking process. That is not the case today.
The balance in Montpelier has decid-
al sub-districts could then be empowered to make decisions around consolidation.
• Innovation: We need better public-private partnerships to ensure that the next Beta Technologies continue to be founded within our boundaries, which may mean increased support for internship and apprenticeship programs from high school through college and beyond. The state needs to be actively soliciting what our employers need to grow and investing to help them realize it.
In short, the process of rethinking how we more effectively deliver on Democratic objectives around an affordable “Abundance” agenda has just begun, and the debate engendered by the books above is welcome and overdue. I hope that the discussion inspires legislators to renew their focus on removing roadblocks around how to deliver for Vermonters and acknowledge and address the very real costs that our highly decentralized, inefficient and too often sluggish governance has wrought.
Matt Wormser is vice chair of the Shelburne Selectboard.
OBITUARIES
continued from page 8
Services. She retired from nursing as a school nurse with Just Kids Early Childhood Learning Center.
Carol loved being a mother, time with her four grandchildren, a good cup of coffee, walks outside, digging in her garden, kayaking on quiet water with Dennis, visiting the library and reading a good book, sending greeting cards, taking pictures, traveling, baking and being with the people she loved.
She was proud to have such a connected extended family and attended every Booth family reunion to date. A committed friend, Carol maintained strong friendships with people from every stage of her life. She gave of her love and time abundantly and demonstrated this profoundly in her proudest role as Grandma to Christopher, Erik, Caleb and Madeleine. If you knew Carol, you have heard stories and seen pictures of her wonderful grandchildren.
Carol lived with a chronic disease for the last several years of her life. She and Dennis continued to visit their home in Shelburne until just last year, deepening their bond with their Vermont grandchildren and building friendships with people at the Charlotte Senior Center and Bone Builders. They
moved to their Port Jefferson (“a walkable town”) apartment from their home of 50 years in Miller Place (“the corner of Pipe Stave & Evans”) in the middle of 2024.
Carol is survived and loved deeply by her husband of 54 years, Dennis Young; children Joshua Young and wife Lisa Pedota Young; and Katy Young Howe and husband Edward Howe; grandchildren Christopher Pedota; Erik Young; and Caleb Howe and Madeleine Howe; brothers James (Nancy) Winkler and Richard Winkler (Debbie Quigley); many cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws and very dear friends. A memorial gathering will be held at home with close family, followed by a larger celebration of life on Long Island this summer.
The family wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to the dedicated staff of Good Shepherd Hospice for the compassionate care they provided over the past several months, and to all our family and friends for their kindness, love and support. In lieu of flowers, donations in Carol’s honor can be made to Good Shepherd Hospice Foundation (catholichealthli.org/good-shepherd-hospice/ways-give) or Shelburne Farms (shelburnefarms.org/support/ make-gift-today).
edly shifted to a position where compromise and cooperation are now necessary to affect solid legislation — an unfamiliar position for the General Assembly majority, which no longer has veto override assurance.
I commend Gov. Scott and his efforts to make Vermont affordable through financial common sense and accountability to taxpayers — an approach that continues to be foreign to many Vermont legislators. Thank you, Gov. Scott, for your continued commitment to Vermonters.
Bruce Roy Williston
add $500
across the state. Without the federal funds for the program, Delneo said the system could still exist, but the burden to fund the system would shift more to local libraries and taxpayers.
“In South Burlington and in Shelburne there is a lot of support for libraries in the local budget,” Delneo said. “But these resources are important locally because they make up a piece of the total offerings and then in some communities, they’re the full offering, so it could be even more impactful to them there if we had to pare down or eliminate anything.”
Delneo said the Department of Libraries, as of Friday, had not heard anything about its grant being cancelled, but the uncertainty is a battle in and of itself.
Local impact
The Carpenter-Carse Library in Hinesburg is one of those smaller, more rural libraries that relies on that state support for the interlibrary loan courier service and the ABLE library. According to library director Jill Anderson, Carpenter-Carse, like many Vermont libraries, serves an aging population.
“We have people who come in
and all they take out are large print books,” Anderson said.
While these resources are essential, Anderson said, a lot of the support from the state library can’t necessarily be qualified in dollar amounts. She pointed to the $350 the library usually receives from the state for its summer reading program as an example.
“People see that number and think that it’s not that big of a deal, but there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in order to help plan summer reading that the state consultants assist with,” Anderson said.
If the state is forced to scale back because of funding cuts at the federal level, Anderson said there’s a chance the Hinesburg library might lose access to those consultants, making it more difficult to put on different programs.
Should federal funding fall through, even if some libraries can fill in the gaps, the network will still be at stake.
“Even if an individual library is fortunate enough to go back to the town and say, ‘Oh, we need 700 more dollars because that’s our share of the courier service,’ well, that doesn’t solve the prob-
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lem because there are all the other libraries in Vermont. We’re connected,” Woodruff said.
The Department of Libraries, with the help of federal dollars, also funds online databases that provide access to thousands of video courses on just about every topic, career and SAT test prep materials and research databases with verified information.
“I certainly didn’t put extra money in the budget for databases that the state has been providing for all the years that I’ve been working here,” Jennifer Murray, the director of the South Burlington library said, sitting in her office on the second floor of the building which was bustling even during the mid-day hours last week. “And maybe I’m going to have to.”
The funding cut from the Institute of Museum and Library Services is not the only potential cut to hit local libraries. Last week, overnight, Vermont Humanities received an email that its funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities had been cancelled. This amounts to 42 percent of its funding.
Along with a slew of other grants, Vermont Humanities also partners with local libraries and organizations to put on smaller events — programs like a recent talk at Carpenter-Carse given by anthropologist Michael Lange about the history and culture of maple syrup.
Executive director Christopher Kaufman Ilstrop said it may not always stick out to people that those programs are federally funded. However, in the last two-plus years
PHOTO BY BRIANA BRADY
Shelburne library director Michael Hibben plans on hosting a community read of “On Tyranny” in May to encourage patrons to act in the face of authoritarianism.
alone, Vermont Humanities has supported over 60 days of programming and events in Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne and South Burlington, many of which are at the libraries.
While the organization plans to try to fill in the gap with cash reserves and appeals to donors, the future is still uncertain.
Community hubs
Murray said that, more than anything, Trump’s executive orders have created an air of uncertainty in these spaces, one of the only places in a community that is free and accessible to anyone and everyone.
She described libraries as “community hubs” with a unique mission, from hosting reading hours to providing internet access to submit a job application or complete a visa application.
“We have people on the computers every day who are doing something that has to do with betterment or improvement,” Murray said. “We have people who appear to be unhoused, and they regularly are using the recording studio. Are they putting out a vlog? Is it just that they’re making music and it’s for their own joy? I don’t know, but I’m glad that we’re here for them.”
For Anderson at the Carpenter-Carse Library, the space is more than just where she works. It has also been her local library since she moved to Vermont with her daughter 13 years ago. She was a patron years before she was an employee.
“I grew up with libraries being a really important part of my life, coming from a family that didn’t have a lot of resources,” Anderson said. “This particular library was just so welcoming, and the community that my daughter and I found here was something that I needed so much at that point in my life.”
For the many that keep these libraries running, the work exceeds just a job title. It is a labor of love.
Fighting back
Vermont’s Attorney General Charity Clark last week joined a coalition of 20 other state attorneys general in suing the Trump administration to stop the dismantling of Institute of Museum and Library Services and two other agencies targeted in the administration’s executive order.
“Vermonters know that libraries are the heart of our towns and rural communities, and this executive order would threaten their continued health. For some, gutting these grants could jeopardize their very survival,” Clark said. “As chair of the board of my local library, I know how important Vermont’s town libraries are to children, job seekers, elders and all of us.”
For Michael Hibben, director of the Pierson Library in Shelburne, even more than the funding, the existential threat to libraries is weighing on him. Like Woodruff in Charlotte, he never thought he would have to defend their value.
“I am concerned, if we’re slipping into authoritarianism, and it seems that way, what that could mean for libraries, even here in Vermont,” he said. “And if bad things start happening where the federal government tries somehow to censor certain things, what would Vermonters do? Would we stand up to that? How would we stand up to that?” Hibben said he is planning some relevant programming for Shelburne patrons. In May, the library will host a community read of Timonthy Snyder’s “On Tyranny,” a book that looks to lessons from the past to teach people how to fight authoritarianism.
The week-long bait drop is a cooperative effort between Vermont and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to stop the spread of the potentially fatal
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