In the off chance you haven’t seen the hundreds of red "Vote Yes" signs (plus some blue ones, concentrated in the New North End, urging the opposite), here’s a heads up: The Burlington school budget is up for a second and final vote today.

This time around the total price tag is $67.4 million, which comes with a 7.2 percent tax increase. If residents reject it again, a default budget of $66.3 million will take effect, with a 5 percent increase in the tax rate.

Polls opened at 7:00 A.M. and will close at 7:00 P.M. A list of polling sites can be found here.

A lot has happened in the three months since voters struck down the school board’s first proposal, a $66.9 million budget with a 9.9 percent increase in the tax rate.

Oh, Vermonters! Round up your L.L. Bean boyfriends, your canvas tote bags, your Sunday-best flannel, and mark your calendars for October. L.L. Bean is bringing a little bit of Maine to our very own Green Mountain State.

The outdoor retailer announced today plans to open an 18,290-square-foot, two-level store this fall in the Burlington Town Center, the city's downtown shopping mall. L.L. Bean estimated it will employ 100 people at the store — the brand's 20th retail outlet outside Maine, and its first in Vermont. 

“Our stores are where the L.L.Bean catalogs come to life for our customers,” said Ken Kacere, senior vice-president and general manager of retail at L.L.Bean, in the announcement. 

Outgoing Burlington superintendent Jeanne Collins is heading south — the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to hire her for its top job after carrying out an "over-the-top thorough" review.

Collins was one of two finalists for the position which opened up in April when the current superintendent, John Castle, announced he was leaving to serve as superintendent for the North Country Supervisory Union. Days before the board planned to make a decision, the other finalist dropped out of the running to take different superintendent post. 

Collins came under fire in Burlington after an audit in April uncovered flaws in the district's budgeting procedures. Mayor Miro Weinberger and several city councilors urged the school board to part ways with her, and in early May it did just that. Collins and the Burlington board signed a separation agreement, under which she will depart the district on June 30, two years before the end of her contract, with $225,000 in severance pay. 

Carol Brigham, the chair of the RNESU board, said they were well aware of the controversy in Burlington, but after an exhaustive vetting, they concluded she had been "scapegoated" during what became a political maelstrom. 

In an email to Seven Days, Brigham explained, "Many on the board were initially skeptical, as are some in our community, due to the controversy surrounding Ms. Collins tenure in Burlington. This is why our interview process was so “over-the-top” thorough, including contacting no less than 60 people in reference to Ms. Collins. The responses we got from folks offered an insight into a political situation in Burlington which, in the opinion of many, has scapegoated Ms. Collins for problems which were largely not her fault and which she was on track to remedy."

Haven’t heard of Vermont’s Turkish Cultural Center? You clearly are not a well-connected political official.

Effusiveness went unchecked at the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. Vermont’s governor and attorney general, a handful of lawmakers and Burlington’s mayor took turns extolling the Anatolian initiative to promote “cross-cultural awareness.” An FBI Special Agent, Wayne E. Shuptrine, also attended.

The center, which started in 2011, is sharing its new space on Burlington’s College Street with two other “sister” organizations: the Peace Islands Institute — founded, as you might guess, to promote peace — and the Turkic American Chamber of Commerce, which, according to its leadership, “has been bringing investors to investigate business opportunities in Vermont” and aims to provide local Vermont businesses with "networking opportunities" in the Turkic world.

The organizations are local offshoots that fall under the umbrella organization, the Council of Turkic American Associations. According to Eyup Sener, the council’s New England regional director, Vermont is home to roughly 4,000 people of Turkic heritage. (The Turkic region, he made a point of clarifying, includes not just to Turkey but also Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.)

On Wednesday, well more than 50 people, including men in dark suits, milled about the 5th floor offices during the lunchtime celebration. A group of men sat around an oval table in a side office, conferring with the door open, while the rest of the crowd listened to speeches. In one corner, an elderly man wearing a skullcap sat with cane resting against his knee.

UPDATE 3:30 P.M. 5/20/2014 Story was updated to include Jeanne Collins' comments on her job search.

Embattled Burlington Superintendent Jeanne Collins agreed last week to leave her job — effective June 30 — but she's already a finalist — the only finalist, in fact — for the open superintendent position in the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union.

The Rutland Herald reported that Rutland Northeast held a community forum Monday night in which Collins fielded questions from residents. Collins' competition for the post, Carl Chambers, withdrew from the running last Friday, after accepting the superintendent position with the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, according to the Herald. 

The search commenced in early April and Collins applied the first week in May, according to Carol Brigham, head of the search committee. Twenty-two people applied, eight of whom were qualified and four of whom were interviewed, she said.

The Burlington School Board negotiated a separation and settlement agreement with Collins after an investigation into the district's chronic deficits uncovered problems with the way her administration had been drawing up school budgets for the last several years. Collins, who makes roughly $130,000 a year plus benefits, and whose contract would have run through June 2016, is leaving with $225,000 in severance pay. The board initiated formal discussions, in executive session, about Collins on April 18.

The search committee is aware of what happened in Burlington and is researching the situation, Brigham said.

After Seven Days asked her to comment, Collins emailed a statement out Tuesday afternoon that read: 

"I would like to make a statement about being a finalist for the Superintendent position for Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union. As of June 30th I do not have a job; it was not my choice to be in a position of looking for a job as I wanted to continue to work in Burlington Schools, but that option is no longer available. The School Board approached me to consider resigning if we came to an agreement on my contract and we have reached an agreement.

"I am very excited about the possibility of working for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union as their Superintendent. I am very interested in this position and I believe I am good fit for their needs as well. I just want to be considered based upon my merits. I am looking forward to moving on. I hope that articles in the press do not adversely affect my getting this position. At this point I will have no further comments."
 
Brigham said the committee will continue to do reference checks and will visit Burlington sites before making a final recommendation to the full board on May 27.  

The feedback from residents was mixed, according to the Herald story: "Many approved of her leadership skills and involvement within the schools. One Brandon resident said, 'she sticks to her values and never backs down from a difficult situation.' However, many said they felt obligated to approve of her simply because they were presented with no other candidates." At least one question was asked about Collins' role in Burlington's most recent deficit. 

Supporters of the Burlington school budget gained a key recruit Monday. On a sun-soaked afternoon, standing under blossoming trees and in front of a crowd of parents and students, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced he'll be voting for the budget. 

In just two weeks — on June 3 — Burlington residents will decide whether to support a $67.4 million budget, which comes with a 7.2 percent tax increase. Until now, Weinberger withheld his endorsement, announcing in April that he wouldn't support the budget unless Superintendent Jeanne Collins was removed from her post.

Since Town Meeting Day, the school district has been embroiled in budget-related controversies, set off by the discovery that serious errors led to multi-million dollar deficits. 

On May 13, Weinberger got his way when the school board and Collins announced a settlement agreement that will send Collins packing on June 30, with $225,000 in severance pay. Now, one week later, he's decided to throw his weight behind the board's new budget. 

Updated 7:11 p.m. on 5/19/2014

Burlington police today identified the transient man found dead in a Pine Street encampment on Saturday, but said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has been unable to identify the cause of his death and will need at least three more weeks to conduct additional tests.

Forrest Bryant, 40, who had been in Burlington for three months, was found dead in a sleeping structure within the camp site on Saturday morning. The day before, authorities had notified the 10 or so people living in the encampment that they would have to leave in a few days, Police Chief Michael Schirling said during a morning press conference.

Further, police said a few hours after the news conference that they have a person of interest in the case in custody. Mark Delude, 52, of Burlington has been charged with obstruction of justice and trespass, authorities said, and was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Chittenden Superior Court. Police said that Delude was involved in an altercation with Bryant hours before Bryant's death, and tried to prevent police and rescue personnel from being called to the scene. Delude is a transient and has more than 70 prior arrests, police said.

Delude is being held in jail on $25,000 bail, police said. 

Earlier today, Schirling said the decision to clear the encampment, made after workers in the Pine Street area discovered it, does not appear to have played a role in Bryant's death.

Bryant had no signs of external wounds, and police do not believe any weapons were involved. Moreover, while a toxicology report is still pending, that is not the source of the hold-up at the Medical Examiner's Office, Schirling said.

With one phone call from the state to its lawyer, the Burlington School Board got yet another dose of bad news at a finance committee meeting on Thursday night. Members already knew that a $1.5 million pot of revenue — which the district is banking on for next year’s budget — might be in jeopardy because of a conflict between state law and the city charter.

Up until a few days ago, it was just the city and the school district agreeing to get to the bottom of the legal quandary at some point down the road.

Now, the state has upped the ante. The  school district’s lawyer, Joe McNeil, informed the board that on Wednesday, the Agency of Education (AOE) gave the district an ultimatum: Voluntarily give up that revenue, starting in Fiscal Year 2016, or risk having to pay back the state for the previous years it had received it.

The revenues in question are the “payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT)” that Burlington’s publicly- owned utilities give to the city instead of paying property taxes. In accordance with city charter, the city then divvies up that revenue, 50-50, with the school district. 

MEMO
From: Burlington Police Department
To: Burlington Public 
Re: Things That Go 'Boom'

Don't come to us, we'll come to you.

Burlington cops received a bit of a scare last night when a New North End man brought a "flash-bang" device he found outside his home to the police station.

The citizen, whom Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling said was simply trying to be helpful, left the device in his car in the police department's parking lot and walked inside the station, announcing his intention to hand it over. 

Officers on duty had a different idea: They called the Vermont State Police Bomb Squad, which removed the device, and later found it did not contain any explosive material.

Burton Snowboards founder Jake Burton is once again stepping down from his role as chief executive officer, handing off day-to-day leadership of his company to current Chief Operating Officer Mike Rees.

Rees has held a variety of leadership positions at Burton Snowboards for the past five years, the company said, focusing on developing future plans for the Burlington-based company.

“Jake’s passion for product and for the sport extends throughout the entire organization, and growing the snowboarding lifestyle has been at the heart of Burton’s success from the beginning. I look forward to working closely with Jake to carry out his vision for growing Burton both on and off the mountain," Rees said in a prepared statement.

Burton, who founded the privately held company in his Vermont barn in 1977, relinquished the CEO position in 2005 to spend more time with his family, only to reclaim the job in 2009. He will now become his company's chairman.

“Four years ago when I got my old job back as Burton’s CEO, my goal was to get the company headed in the right direction, build up our leadership team and establish a clear plan for the long-term future of the brand,” Burton said in a prepared statement. “Looking back, we’ve accomplished these goals and have a solid foundation in place. Now it’s time to turn over the day-to-day tasks of running Burton to a new CEO."