The Middlebury College community kicked off the month of November by officially welcoming President Ian B. Baucom to his post. Baucom’s installation ceremony culminated a weekend of events that gathered the college community together and considered the question, “What is Middlebury for?”

The college community and others around the region and state were also mourning the loss of Middlebury College senior Lia Smith, who had died by suicide in October. Local residents and members of the trans community reflected on Smith’s life, opportunities to support trans youth and the hardships they face, particularly amidst recent state laws and executive orders targeting trans people.

After Hurricane Melissa devastated the Caribbean, Addison County residents joined others in rallying around the hundreds of Jamaican farmworkers who come to Vermont each year to work at orchards and farms around the state. Shoreham’s Champlain Orchards and Sunrise Orchards in Cornwall were among the Vermont farms behind a fundraising campaign aimed at supporting farmworkers returning home after the hurricane.

Community members in November were also working to support their neighbors amid a lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the federal government shutdown. Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects (HOPE) in Middlebury welcomed more individuals seeking groceries through the organization’s food shelf and the Addison Central School District announced it would offer “take home food boxes” for ACSD families that requested one.

A couple of local municipalities were trending toward Town Meeting Day votes on whether to implement a local option tax in their communities. In Vergennes, members of the Parks & Recreation Committee highlighted several projects the additional revenue could support, such as completion of the pavilion in Veterans Park and a rec center. Over in Bristol, town officials noted money generated through the tax could be put toward capital infrastructure projects, economic development and other priorities.

In Middlebury, the Counseling Service of Addison County Board selected Taylor Morley to succeed Rachel Lee as executive director of the organization.

Members of the Otter Valley Unified Union school board were exploring the potential reconfiguration and closure of elementary schools in the district, including Otter Creek Academy schools in Leicester and Whiting. School district officials were working toward a December board decision on the matter, with a potential new configuration to be in place for the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.

In nearby Orwell, a large grant gave a boost to the citizen-led effort to obtain, renovate and return the former Buxton’s Store building to its prior use as a commercial hub. The town was selected as one of five beneficiaries of the 2025 Village Trust Initiative, which offers financial and technical assistance to support such projects.

Some of the county’s youngest residents and their families gathered in Middlebury for a ribbon cutting at the Otter Creek Child Center, an event celebrating the completion of a three-story, 12,000-square-foot addition to the building. The around $12 million project enabled the child center to increase staffing and add 77 childcare slots.

November in Vermont means the start of rifle season, which got off to a slow start for hunters in Addison County. A total of 131 hunters had bucks weighed at the region’s reporting stations on opening weekend, the lowest total for the weekend in at least the past decade.

Some farmers in the county had shifted to another option for feeding their livestock — sorghum sudangrass. The annual grass crop is drought-resistant and can provide a resilient option for farmers’ forage systems, something local farmers gathered to learn more about after the severe drought that hit the state during the growing season.

Community members unveiled a new vending machine in Bristol — one that dispensed lifesaving products like Narcan, first aid kits and hygiene items for free. The public health vending machine, located next to the Bristol Police Department, is one of two in Addison County that can be accessed by anyone at any time.

And as the month came to a close, the Addison Central School District Board decided to move forward with the consolidation and closure of a few schools in the district. The board voted in favor of a plan that will blend Shoreham’s kindergarten through 5th-grade students into Bridport Central School beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. School district officials also agreed to begin the formal closing of Ripton Elementary School starting next fall, a move that still needs an affirmative vote by school district voters on Town Meeting Day.