Issue #800
WSESU board begins work on policy for supt. contract talks
BRATTLEBORO-After the most recent contract negotiation with current Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) Superintendent Mark Speno met with some concerned surprise, board directors are considering adopting a written policy to guide such negotiations in the future.
It came to public light in fall of 2024 that WSESU Chair Anne Beekman had negotiated a three-year contract with Speno for a salary of $175,000 annually plus an automatic 4% annual increase during those three years, making him one of the highest paid superintendents in the state.
Signing in for duty
Museum gets help from junior museum guides
BRATTLEBORO-When asked what inspired Junior Museum Guides, a new program for children at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), Kate Milliken, manager of education programs, shared an example of a young child who became empowered to share his knowledge and perspectives about art after visiting the museum on...
Bears do well at their first home Nordic meet
-The Brattleboro nordic ski team had its first home meet of the season on Jan. 24 at the Marlboro Ski Club. Thanks to about 8 inches of snow on Jan. 19 and some of the coldest weather of the winter thus far, the course was in excellent shape for...
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Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem return to Putney
PUTNEY-Stage Arts and Twilight Music present New England's folk/roots quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, on Saturday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem feature four-part vocal harmonies, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and a homemade percussion kit of cardboard boxes, tin cans, caulk tubes, packing-tape tambourines, bottle-cap rattles, Mongolian jaw harps, and a vinyl suitcase. Over the past 20 years, the quartet has toured to concert halls, festivals, and...
Levine offers mammal tracking tips
BRATTLEBORO-Was that a bobcat prowling in the yard overnight, or just a bunny? Award-winning author Lynn Levine will lead an event at ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., on Saturday, Feb. 1, from 2 to 4 p.m. While all ages are welcome, children must be accompanied by an adult. Levine will guide the curious through how to identify mammal tracks and patterns in all seasons, and she says the winter snowy season is a great time to start. She...
Around the Towns
Celebrate the Lunar New Year of China, Korea, and Vietnam on Feb. 2 BRATTLEBORO - Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) celebrates the Lunar New Year of China, Korea, and Vietnam on Sunday, Feb. 2, from 1 to 3 p.m., at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), 10 Vernon St. "You don't have to be Asian or know anything about Asia to participate. Join us to usher in the year of the Green Wood Snake," organizers said in a...
Juno presents 'Context: Six Centuries'
BRATTLEBORO-Juno Orchestra presents "Context: Six Centuries," on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 2:30 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC). Juno Music Director Zon Eastes explained in a news release that the concert will feature works from six centuries that may share similar formal structures, texts, or intentions, though each is singular and commanding on its own. For example, Eastes has chosen two settings of a revered Latin text, O Magnum Mysterium, by composers living 500 years apart, one from the...
Windham Region Priority Projects announced by BDCC
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC), the Windham Region's economic development commission, recently announced its Regional Project Prioritization list for 2025. This list ranks the region's top 10 priority projects as determined by a joint committee of members from both BDCC and Windham Regional Commission, as well as community representatives from across Windham County. Regional Project Prioritization (RPP) lists are developed annually by regional development corporations (RDCs) to identify projects of priority and importance in the region using input from regional...
Sandglass Theater presents Winter Sunshine Series
PUTNEY-Sandglass Theater presents its 18th annual Winter Sunshine Series this February. Four premier New England–based puppet companies from Vermont and Massachusetts will offer puppetry for young audiences. Dedicated to serving children and families through the art of puppetry, Sandglass will showcase a different live puppetry performance every Saturday throughout the month. They invite everyone to "be a part of the revelry, the joy, and the wonder of storytelling through the timeless and creative voice of puppetry." Winter Sunshine's featured artists...
Putney Public Library celebrates 20th birthday
PUTNEY-On Sunday, Feb. 2, from 1 to 4 p.m., the Putney Public Library will kick off a year of activities and programming to celebrate its 20th birthday in the current building on Main Street and to honor two decades of community engagement in this space. The year of celebration will open with a birthday party complete with cake and balloons. And if one cake isn't enough, the library is also hosting a cake contest in which patrons can vote for...
Milestones
Obituaries • L. Bruce Chapin, 91, of Jamaica. Died on Jan. 11, 2025, in his home that he and his wife Shirley had built, with his loving family by his side. Bruce was born May 15, 1933, in Williamsville, a devoted son of Elsie Geneva (Farr) and Mark George Chapin. Bruce and his younger brother, Pug, were raised in South Windham on the Farr homestead in a close-knit community surrounded by family. Bruce graduated in 1952 from Leland & Gray...
Local folk artists to perform in Westminster West
WESTMINSTER WEST-On Saturday, Feb. 1, two regional singer-songwriters will be playing at the Congregational Church of Westminster West. Bellows Falls native Dylan Patrick Ward and Keene-based Ian Galipeau will each play a set of original songs, with an intermission in between. Ward "writes consoling songs for a cruel world," say event promoters in a news release. "Inspired by do-it-yourself pioneers like Daniel Johnston and the Mountain Goats, and by great musical tragicomedians like John Prine and Randy Newman, he draws...
In making our town safer, let’s not inflict further harm
Marta Gossage engages on issues surrounding communities, both in Brattleboro and online. BRATTLEBORO-In a Jan. 8 article in the Reformer ["Planet Hank's charge to change downtown"], Hank Poitras says his bike was stolen, and he drove around, found it, and recovered it. After that, he filmed himself chasing and following the person and making siren noises. He said he got a lot of response to that video, which gave him a feel-good moment and he wanted to repeat that success.
Secretary of state asks: How is Vermont’s civic health?
BRATTLEBORO-Vermont is among the top states in the nation in terms of civic engagement, but only because the rest of the nation is doing worse. That was the crux of the message that Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and members of her staff brought to Brooks Memorial Library on Jan. 15 on the first stop of their Civic Health Index Tour. The Civic Health Index measures the health of a state's civic engagement by dividing it into into...
Interstitial inspiration
HB Lozito is the executive director of Out in the Open, where they work to build rural LGBTQ community, visibility, knowledge, and power. BRATTLEBORO-As my partner and I were driving up to Bellows Falls recently for a performance by the fabulous Toussaint St. Negritude (hosted by the fabulous Wendy M. Levy, now of the Rockingham Free Public Library), we listened to an episode of Radiolab about an organ within our bodies - the interstitium - and the process by which...
In Brattleboro, with bitter cold comes urgent need for shelter
BRATTLEBORO-With night temperatures dipping below freezing and an estimated 80 unsheltered people in the area, community members are calling on the town to open an emergency overnight shelter. At a Jan. 23 meeting of Brattleboro's Community Homelessness Strategy Team (CHST), Cristina Shay-Onye, a Brattleboro resident, urged the town to develop a plan of action. "It has now been exactly one month since I sent an email [to town officials] saying we need to open something up tonight," Shay-Onye told meeting...
‘Humble advice’ about plans for housing on Chalet land
Editor's note: The 2020 deed transferring the Chalet property to the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust explicitly stipulates as a condition of the sale that Ursula Dalem have life tenancy, along with the option to be buried next to her husband on the property. PUTNEY-An open letter to the Brattleboro Selectboard and Planning Commission and the community: It's wonderful that The Windham & Windsor Housing Trust is building 70 new homes in West Brattleboro on the former Dalem's Chalet property.
Concern in the air on Bellows Falls depot project
BELLOWS FALLS-A complex ownership situation involving two state agencies could derail Rockingham's plans to purchase and restore the Bellows Falls train depot, but Development Director Gary Fox said these issues can be resolved in time for the town to meet the April 1 deadline for buying the building. To that end, the town has sent a letter to Gov. Phil Scott seeking cooperation from two state agencies to move the project forward, and the state has affirmed its willingness to...
WSESD board appoints interim Dummerston rep
BRATTLEBORO-After hearing from each of three candidates who stepped up to take the seat left vacant by Windham Southeast School District School Board Director Eva Nolan's recent resignation, the board has appointed Jessica Everlith to fill in as a Dummerston representative until the March 4 election. Everlith, 34, also plans to run for the remaining one-year term of that seat in the annual election. "I am honored to be appointed to the Windham Southeast School District Board of Directors and...
Lesson from Nazi Germany: Persecution begins with personal data
BRATTLEBORO-The incoming president has now signed pardons for the violent treasonous folks who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, signaling his intent to not hold his violent followers accountable. He has also issued orders that those who are taking part in his efforts to round up people, put them into camps, and deport them should start with schools and churches. He also has attempted to revoke the 14th Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship. These are all straight from the...
Breaching flag protocol is a sign of disrespect
BRATTLEBORO-It's good to see the American flag flying at half-staff again after the exoneration of our redoubtable 47th president of the United States. Across the nation, flag protocol is to fly the colors at half-staff for a 30-day period of mourning at the passing of a president - this time, to honor former President Jimmy Carter until Jan. 29. At the Capitol and in 30 states, government leaders raised their flags for Inauguration Day, a symbolic gesture to mollify our...
In support of our asylum-seeking neighbors
BRATTLEBORO-I want to express my support for those of my neighbors, the children at my daughter's Brattleboro school, their parents, from Venezuela, from Afghanistan, from other countries, who are asylum seekers, immigrants, and/or living in Vermont under temporary protected status. I support your being here. I am against any effort to adversely affect your being at home in our communities. I believe promises made to you by our government should be promises our government keeps. I imagine myself vulnerable and...
NAACP revives contest for youth art and writing
BRATTLEBORO-When Daniel Guerra taught at the middle and high schools in Brattleboro, some of the most creative, and possibly restless, students would sketch him as he stood before the class. "There were some that were pretty striking," he said. "Like, 'Whoa. You're really good.'" And of course, the school hallways were adorned with students' paintings, photography, sculpture, and other creations. "I'm probably a little biased," he said, "but I would just often come across really incredible works of art." Now,
Federal funding ax hits refugees, resettlement efforts in Vt.
A Trump administration order on Jan. 27 halting funding that supports recent arrivals has left at least 59 Vermont refugees in limbo. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Vermont received the order at 5:40 p.m. that day, directing that it stop any and all work related to funding the reception and placement of refugees, including any new arrivals, officials from the nonprofit organization told VTDigger. The order halted key federal funding - $1,650 per person - the organization...
The cognitive dissonance of ‘holocaust’ and ‘happen’
Lisa Chase is retired and lives in Putney, where she is a member of the town's Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. For more information about International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Jan. 27, visit bit.ly/799-holocaust. PUTNEY-We take this moment to observe an event in history and to commemorate it: to commit it to memory. I want to talk about the Holocaust - the systematic murder of millions of people, mostly Jews, in terms of two words: the word holocaust and...