Pats win!
Plumage palette
South Burlington hockey players help team win national championship
Wood ducks return, give Vermont lakes, ponds touch of color
Page 8
Page 10
POSTAL CUSTOMER
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the APRIL 14, 2022
otherpapersbvt.com
Burlington mayor, legislators play tug of war over airport AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
In 1919, two Vermonters, one a local pilot and the other a future Burlington mayor, drove out to a 72-acre cornfield in South Burlington, decided it looked like a good spot to land a plane and leased the plot for $100. That cornfield grew into what would become the Burlington International Airport, according to author James Tabor, who wrote a history of the airport. It’s now a 942-acre international hub, serving more than a million passengers a year, and houses the Vermont Air National Guard and other crucial businesses to the state economy. However, the airport’s impact on residents in Winooski and in South Burlington, where the entity is located, have strained relations between Burlington and its neigh-
bors over the years and some are questioning whether Burlington should continue to run the airport. Thomas Chittenden, a South Burlington city councilor and a Democratic state senator on that body’s transportation committee, hopes an outside study will give better representation to affected communities like South Burlington. “I do see a problem with representation. The air space over Chittenden County is not owned by the city of Burlington and as a city councilor for the last eight years, it has been very difficult to advocate for the right prioritization of different noise mitigation strategies, noise berms, sound monitoring and so on,” Chittenden said last week as the Senate Committee on Transportation took testimony on a proposed amendment adding
VOLUME 46, NO. 15
A Dome’s-eye view
COURTESY PHOTO
South Burlington representatives Martin LaLonde, Maida Townsend, Ann Pugh and John Killacky with South Burlington legislative page Orion Cooper and his mother, Laura Stulman Cooper, at the Statehouse in Montpelier.
See AIRPORT on page 13
New principal joins Tuttle middle school AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington has been without a permanent leader since last fall, when the former principal died unexpectedly just a week before school started. Current and retired administrators stepped in to fill the hole left by the late Karsten Schlenter, as the school community mourned and a slow search for his replacement began. With two and a half months of school left, the district has finally found a new principal
in Scott Sivo, an educator from Shelburne who will start July 1. “Middle school is really where my heart is,” Sivo said, after the school board approved his hire April 6. He’s entering his 20th year in public schools, and currently works as lead principal at Shelburne Community School, where he’s been for the last five years. Visiting Tuttle, talking with students and meeting the other middle school educators helped solidify Sivo’s decision to join the community, especially after hearing about how difficult the current school year has been.
“They’ve experienced a huge loss this year,” between Schlenter’s sudden death and the ongoing pandemic, Sivo said. “So, I’m coming in with that sense, that this community really needed someone to enter gently, to be a good listener, to understand who they are and what their needs are.” A Providence, R.I., native, avid hiker and hardcore Phishhead, Sivo graduated from Colby College with a bachelor’s degree in government and a minor in education before completing his master’s in education from Endicott College.
He transitioned from teaching high school social studies to assistant principal roles at various schools, then landed his current role at the middle school in Shelburne, where he lives. Teaching at different grade levels in different states around the south and New England, Sivo has said he’s picked up many different “tools” in his educator toolbox — a metaphor that seems to be a favorite in the educator community — which have helped him hone his skills and passions. “Middle school is the age group that just resonates with me.
I feel like I really understand kids and what the specific need is at that period,” Sivo said. One of the reasons he felt drawn to Tuttle was the wide range of students’ ages, from four to 14, and the opportunity to address such a wide range of needs as students hit major developmental milestones, he added. Meeting and talking with Tuttle families in a virtual Q&A also proved “impactful,” he said. “It would have been hard for me to picture making the decision to transition from Shelburne without See PRINCIPAL on page 13