Ripton searches for new principal

Ripton and Addison Central School District officials are searching for a new Ripton Elementary School leader to succeed current Principal Tracey Harrington, who will step down at the end of the school year.

Ripton officials are vowing to press for rule changes at the state and local levels that would give the rural community, and others like it, more of a say in the future of their tiny schools and how their students are educated.

At our Ripton School Board Meeting about our upcoming Sept 29 vote, many in our community came together to hear and ask questions about the current situation. While there is no easy solution, we were able to come together and feel heard. 

Ripton residents on Thursday, Sept. 29, will be asked whether they’d like to end their two-year effort to separate from the Addison Central School District, a move townspeople endorsed as a way of preserving their small elementary school.

We find ourselves nearing another important townwide vote on how to best educate our children given current education funding laws and state statutes.

The Addison Central School District board has agreed to revisit the notion of amending its charter in a manner that would give the town of Ripton — and indeed all seven of its member towns — more of a say in future decisions about whether their elementary … (read more)

State says Ripton not ready to run its own school; town will vote on rejoining ACSD.

If the final draft of the report is endorsed by the full state board this Friday, it would deal a major setback to Ripton’s long, arduous effort to withdraw from the Addison Central School District as a means of preserving its elementary school — one of t … (read more)

The Ripton School District board last week voted unanimously to stick to a path that would make the community’s new preK-12 school system operational during the summer of 2023, rather than waiting until 2024.

Ripton Elementary School will keep its part-time principal, Tracey Harrington, through the 2022-2023 academic year. But the school will need a new top administrator when Ripton fully transitions to an independent school district on July 1, 2023.

Students at Ripton Elementary and Salisbury Community Schools have launched “Cards for Caring”, a service learning project to provide humanitarian relief for Ukraine. 

Ripton school officials said they’ll try to make the best of what they believe was an incorrect decision by the Vermont State Board of Education on Jan. 19 to designate the town its own supervisory district.

The Vermont State Board of Education (VSBE) on Wednesday morning officially granted Ripton’s wish to become independent from the Addison Central School District. Now comes the hard part.

Lincoln and Ripton, which voted last year to withdraw from their school districts, have begun exploring the idea of creating a new supervisory union to handle the administrative services they might not be able to afford individually.

A majority of the board on Monday reiterated its opposition to amending the ACSD’s charter in a manner that would give member-communities more power in electing their board representatives and a final say on whether their own elementary schools should clo … (read more)