Featured Stories

South Burlington last week unveiled new improvements to its dispatch center that the city says will bolster its public safety apparatus as efforts to regionalize remain elusive.

A Burlington man, who authorities say is a person of interest in the fatal shooting of two out-of-state men found dead in Lamoille County last October, has pleaded guilty in federal court to an unrelated gun charge in a South Burlington case.

An investigation by the Vermont Human Rights Commission found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Orchard Elementary School and South Burlington School District illegally discriminated against a biracial kindergarten student in the 2018-2019 school year in violation of Vermont’s Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act.

The South Burlington School Board last Wednesday voted unanimously to not renew middle school principal Scott Sivo’s contract.

Michel Bergeron, a South Burlington Dolphins football alum and current Division I player at Delaware State University, is joining the Dolphins as their first-ever intern, bringing a wealth of professional experience and enthusiasm.

Mark Gabel drives bus for South Burlington schools and he often encourages kids to play outside after school with tasks like, “Let’s see who can build a snowman.” Tucker Sutherland took Gabel up on his challenge, creating this snow person.

The Evans/Asbell Duo will present a free program of jazz from the 1940s and 1950s on Saturday, March 23, noon-1 p.m., in the auditorium. Doors open at 11:45 a.m.

House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, the committee I currently serve on, oversees many areas, including what policies can be decided upon at the local level and state level, which often means reviewing and voting on municipal charter changes.

What came to mind when I read Alex McHenry’s statement about his resignation from the school board was “blowing out other people’s candles to make theirs shine brighter.” I attended many school board meetings this past year.

Congratulations to all six candidates who summoned the courage and commitment to run for the three open seats on city council. Campaigning for public office can be grueling, and the continual public scrutiny keeps most of us away from that process.

Open government mattered to all of us during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Government played an outsized role in our day-to-day lives then. Schools closed, storefronts shuttered and the officials making decisions about quarantines, mask mandates and vaccines often met in secret or exclusively online.

The current debate surrounding Act 127, which changes the funding formula for education, has made the significant kinks in the current system visible. If we want to continue to provide a quality education to students, we must act now and re-examine how we fund one of, if not the most important responsibilities the state takes on: educating the next generation.

My body feels as though I’ve volunteered for a scientific study; becoming a proving ground of sorts, evaluating various pieces of adaptive equipment as I put my own durability to the test, slipping, sliding, slogging and crunching over back roads whose fluctuating consistency becomes more unpredictable with each passing winter.