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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the MAY 19, 2022
Schools hire first ever equity director
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VOLUME 46, NO. 20
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AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
After a year of searching, the South Burlington School District has finally hired its first ever executive director of equity. In the last year, the district has engaged consultants and slowly probed the search and hiring process, all the while maintaining that the plodding pace was purposeful to ensure the district is ready to welcome the right person. Turns out the right person is De-Dee Loftin-Davis, a New Jersey native with extensive experience in organizing with the NAACP, as a racial equity advisor, lecturer, writer and more. Over the phone, Loftin-Davis is easy to talk to; you can hear the smile in her voice and her excitement for the new job. “I was born into this work,” Loftin-Davis said, pointing to her family’s long legacy of volunteering with the NAACP and her own experience as a Black woman living in America. “Our community has always been about action. It’s great to have critical and needed conversations, we need that. But the Black community has been talking since slavery. We’ve learned our power is in policy, it is in practices every day, it’s in procedures.” The South Burlington School Board approved her hiring at a meeting April 27, but she won’t start until the new school year begins in July. The recently passed school budget allotted a little over $148,000 to create the new position, which carries duties that include working with district leadership, advising the superintendent, examining bias in local, state and federal practices, all while ensuring all voices in the school and wider community are heard. See EQUITY DIRECTOR on page 20
PHOTO BY AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY
The Parkway Diner opened in South Burlington in 1956 and has weathered closures, changing menus, new owners and a pandemic. See our story, page 17.
South Burlington city officials hope $1 million in ARPA funds will encourage affordable housing AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
South Burlington officials hope to use $1 million in federal pandemic money as a carrot to encourage more affordable housing development, but some councilors questioned if their bar is set too low. “We’re not going to be able to solve affordable housing with this, but this will be a meaningful approach,” chair Chris Trombly told South Burlington city councilors May 2, proposing some broad criteria and values as guidelines when accepting devel-
opment bids to encourage a wide range of applicants. The values proposal requires that applicants at least meet the city’s inclusionary zoning requirements, that the applicant has demonstrated success in creating affordable housing previously, and that the project can be completed within the timeline required of the federal funds, coming from the American Rescue Plan Act. Applications that exceed inclusionary zoning requirements, provide home ownership in addition to rental and go beyond energy efficiency requirements would
garner stronger points in the rubric. While South Burlington city councilors unanimously approved the committee’s proposal, some suggested the goals should be loftier. “Let’s think higher and bigger,” city councilor Meaghan Emery said, adding to similar comments from chair Helen Reihle who also expressed disappointment that the guidelines don’t set a goal of building net zero housing. The proposal does require projects to be as close to net zero as possiSee ARPA FUNDS on page 21