Search Results for 'Act 46'
GMUSD board wrestles with bullying and governance
By Shawn Cunningham © 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Thursday’s Green Mountain Unified School District Board meeting took up the second half of the behemoth agenda that the board started the week before. Before beginning the meeting, board chair Lisa Sanders of Cavendish asked that only one person speak at a time, with no side […]
Op-ed: Keep our schools to keep our town
By Carl Henshaw ©2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC At a recent Chester Planning Commission meeting, Kellen Appleton and Allison Hopkins from the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission shared a statistic that stopped me cold. Chester’s average age is rising one year for every two that pass. At that pace, within 30 years, our average resident will be […]
GMUSD board re-organizes with several new members Board chooses two new Chester representatives
By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing LLC The effects of the recent Town Meeting Day elections and filling of its two vacancies are looking like a sea change in the operation of the Green Mountain Unified School District board if last Thursday’s meeting is any indication. The new directors — Michael Ripley of Cavendish replacing […]
News Analysis: More questions than answers to fill a school board seat
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The board of the Green Mountain Unified School District has a long history of tackling difficult issues but not resolving them in a timely manner: the on again-off again discussion with the school’s former mascot being the most recent example, until last Thursday night. The board went […]
Op-ed: Do Vermonters want radical change in education?
By Jack Hoffman Now that the state House of Representatives has passed an education reform plan, it will be easy to get bogged down in the minutiae that differentiate it from Gov. Phil Scott’s “Education Transformation Proposal.” But before Vermonters get lost in the weeds debating these proposals, they might want to ask themselves if […]
School restructuring options include modular classes at CAES, pre-school at CTES
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC At last Thursday’s meeting of the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District, Superintendent Layne Millington unveiled an “Advisory Restructuring Report” that put forward three recommendations for making progress on the issues of under-utilization of Cavendish Town Elementary and over-crowding of Chester-Andover Elementary. Last year, the […]
Future of Education panel narrows focus to engagement, short-term cost containment
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Two months into its work, the commission that’s charged with looking at the future of public education in Vermont is preparing to hold the first of a series of public sessions on Oct. 21, with a venue still to be identified. The sessions are intended to solicit […]
State education commission members may not ‘fully represent Vermont,’ chair says Calls for 'good faith' efforts to bring other voices to the table
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC While the second meeting of the full Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont covered agenda items in detail, one thread ran through the three-hour meeting: public representation, engagement and credibility. Even before the meeting’s agenda and previous meeting’s minutes were approved, commission chair Meagan […]
The Future of Public Education in Vt. – a big lift on short time
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Toward the end of this year’s session, the Vermont legislature passed a bill – H-887, also known as the “yield bill” which made adjustments to rein in tax increase for this year by finding other sources of income. It also established a commission to recommend fixes problems […]
GM school board wrestles with better use of its three school buildings
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last week’s Green Mountain Unified School District’s Restructuring Committee meeting was like experiencing a time warp, with the discussion re-litigating portions of the Act 46 merger that created the district more than seven years ago. The original charge for the committee was to come up with ideas […]
GM school board readies third budget proposal hoping to avert major penalty
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last night was a make-or-break moment for the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District as members met in Proctorsville to craft a budget that could win the approval of voters before the end of the school year on June 30 and avoid the penalties that […]
Voters nix GMUSD budget; Other area results Wunderle, Leahy win school board seats; Roper wins, Knapp re-elected to Chester Select Board
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last year was a rocky one for the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District and to cap it off, on Tuesday, voters shot down the proposed $17.4 million budget by a vote of 699 to 620 in a turnout substantially higher than one year ago […]
GM restructuring reboot gets under way
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Compared with recent Green Mountain Unified School District board meetings, last Thursday’s Restructuring Committee session was refreshingly low-key and constructive. It was all the more interesting because the committee is comprised of the entire board and 10 of the 11 members were present. The original four-person committee […]
School restructuring panel begins discussing ‘right-sizing’ of Cavendish, Chester-Andover elementaries
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a struggle in which the Cavendish members of the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District lobbied for more representation on the new school restructuring committee because the results would impact their elementary school the most, the first meeting of the committee as originally proposed […]
To the editor: Expeditionary School thanks Ludlow voters
A huge thank you from ESBR to Ludlow’s voters. The March 6, 2023 Ludlow Town Meeting was a phenomenal lesson in how democracy can work for the betterment of its community. Thank you to all who voted to help sustain the vision of the Expeditionary School at Black River, situated right here in the heart […]
Ludlow voters OK $75,000 for Expeditionary School
By Cara Philbin ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Voters at Ludlow’s annual Town Meeting on Monday voted to provide the private Expeditionary School at Black River with $75,000 in bridge funding for FY 2024. The new funds follow a tumultuous launch for the school, which opened under the name Black River Independent School, with its first […]
$20M school renovation bond fails by 47 votes
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The $20 million bond intended to pay for renovating the three school buildings of the Green Mountain Unified School District was narrowly defeated Tuesday evening by a vote of 808 in favor to 855 opposed, a defeat that school officials called “disappointing.” The lower vote totals may […]
GMUSD board chair asserts ownership of buses LMH members nix re-registration, titling in GM name
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a 3-3 tie vote, the board of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union defeated a motion to re-register and re-title eight school buses in the name of Green Mountain, the district that bought them for $684,000 back in 2019. The buses are currently registered to TRSU. All […]
GM board hears comments on early release for teacher training Decisions to be made at meeting with LMH board on Wednesday
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC There was plenty for the Green Mountain Unified School Board to do last Thursday night, with its annual reorganization, its regular slate of reports and a lengthy executive session to discuss not renewing the contract of a teacher. But the board allowed extra time to take public […]
UPDATED: School schedule change considered, public input welcomed Weekly early release for teacher development proposed across the SU
By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing LLC The boards of the Green Mountain Unified School District and the Ludlow Mt. Holly Unified Union School District will meet on at 6 p.m. on Wednesday March 23 at Cavendish Town Elementary to decide if they will make a substantial scheduling change that would increase professional development time […]