Friday, November 19, 2021
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona settled into a chair sized for a second-grader and told a group of Champlain Elementary School students that he was there on a special assignment.
Saturday is President Joe Biden’s birthday, he told the children huddled on the floor, and he wanted to bring his boss a card made by professionals.
“I was told this second-grade class is the best in Vermont. Is that true?” Cardona asked, to cheers. One student, Sophia, proffered a large red envelope adorned with gold stars. “Birthday Greetings,” their teacher had written in neat script.
“Thank you for helping me out,” Cardona said, handing out chocolate coins embossed with the U.S. Department of Education logo.
Tags: U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona , President Joe Biden , Build Back Better Act , vaccinations , COVID-19 , coronavirus , education , Champlain Elementary School , Web Only , Image
Thursday, November 18, 2021
The newly created "action levels" are significantly higher than the "screening level" the state has previously used to flag excessive amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in indoor air. Burlington High School decided to shut its doors after testing last year showed levels above the state's threshold of 15 nanograms per cubic meter, along with extensive PCB contamination in building materials.
But the new action levels are 100 nanograms per cubic meter for high school buildings, a level not exceeded by most of the classrooms at Burlington High School's Institute Road campus. Last school year, district officials decided to forgo $70 million in renovations that voters approved and recently decided to build a new school. It is unclear whether the state’s decision will impact this plan.
Tags: Vermont Department of Health , PCBs , Burlington High School , Department of Environmental Conservation , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Superintendent Tom Flanagan recommended the site following a six-month process led by real estate consultants White + Burke. The firm initially identified 16 possible locations, then whittled it down to three: two sites on the Institute Road campus in the New North End, and the downtown Gateway Block on Main Street.
"We did a serious review of the entire city and all the possible sites that were there," Flanagan said at Tuesday's meeting. "And we have weighed the site evaluations, feedback from the community, and our own assessment of the educational needs of the community."
Tags: Burlington School District , Tom Flanagan , Institute Road , Burlington High School , PCBs , Kids VT , Web Only , Image , Kids VT
Under pressure from two media organizations, the Vermont Principals' Association reversed a decision to ban the press from Tuesday's playoff semifinal soccer game between Winooski and Enosburg Falls high schools. The new decision, which was finalized Tuesday morning, allows members of the media to attend the match but not fans.
Winooski "thought not having the media there would calm things down," Nichols said. But "after a lot of thought," the Winooski School District, the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union and the Vermont Principals' Association, which governs high school sports, "decided collectively that having the media there would be fine."
Tags: Winooski High School , Enosburg Falls High School , Vermont Principals' Association , Vermont Press Association , Jay Nichols , Mike Donoghue , Web Only , Image
Monday, November 1, 2021
No members of the public can attend Tuesday's state playoff semifinal between Winooski and Enosburg Falls "to ensure the physical and emotional safety of all student-athletes involved," the Vermont Principals' Association said in a statement on Monday morning. The group governs middle- and high-school sports in the state.
Only team members, coaches, officials and school administrators can attend the game. It will be played at Burlington High School because it is a neutral location.
The decision quickly drew pushback from Mike Donoghue, a longtime local journalist who serves as executive director of the Vermont Press Association and the Vermont Sports Media Association. In a statement Monday afternoon, he said the groups had jointly filed an objection to the ban, with support from "various individual members."
Tags: soccer , Winooski School District , Enosburg Falls High School , Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union , Vermont Principals' Association , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
The memo — which is advisory and not mandatory — encourages schools to require masks for all student athletes, coaches, referees and spectators during indoor practice, competition and games, regardless of vaccination status.
But there are several exceptions to the recommendation. Athletes in running events where they can physically distance from others do not need to wear masks. And masks aren't required for sports that require "inversion" — turning upside down — such as wrestling, gymnastics, cheer and dance, because of the safety hazard the masks could pose in such instances.
Tags: hockey , basketball , high school sports , Secretary Dan French , Vermont Agency of Education , Vermont Department of Health , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 25, 2021
The group issued its plea during a press conference at the Statehouse on Monday that featured comments from Democratic and Progressive lawmakers, health policy researchers, school nurses and parents of young children.
They argued that the Scott administration's departure from proven mitigation measures has allowed the highly infectious Delta variant to run rampant through the state, disrupting schools and pushing case counts to unprecedented heights.
“While these numbers keep soaring, the administration keeps doing nothing,” said Rep. Tanya Vyhovsky (P-Essex), a school social worker, noting that Vermont at one point this month was reporting the largest increase in the country in cases over the previous 14 days. “This points to the need for swift and decisive action. Doing what we are doing is clearly not working.”
Tags: Gov. Phil Scott , Pandemic response , State of emergency , COVID , Surge , Web Only , Image
Friday, October 22, 2021
In previous school guidance, a close contact was someone who was within six feet or less of an infectious person for 15 minutes or more.
Tags: contact tracing , quarantine , Vermont Agency of Education , Dan French , American Academy of Pediatrics , Web Only , Image
The artist, Sam Kerson, sued VLS in December 2020 over its plan to hide his mural behind acoustic panels, claiming that doing so would violate his rights under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 law that protects an artist's work from "intentional distortion, mutilation, or other modification."
Tags: Vermont Law School , mural , Sam Kerson , court , judge , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
The Chittenden County State's Attorney's Office is deciding whether to charge the student. The Winooski Police Department sent the prosecutors' office a report on October 11 that found probable cause that the 19-year-old player committed what would be a misdemeanor offense.
The Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union, which includes Enosburg Falls High School, said on Monday that its two-and-half-week investigation into the matter found no evidence to substantiate the allegations of racial abuse. But superintendent Lynn Cota said she considers the investigation incomplete because Winooski student athletes declined to answer questions, and the Winooski School District did not share its investigatory notes.
Tags: Winooski School District , Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union , Winooski Police Department , racial slurs , Enosburg , Winooski , Web Only , Image , Video