Community Forum: Act 73 turns its back on Vermonters

These are not usual times for schools or students or for adults. Everyone is on edge. 50 percent of Vermont households live under financial stress. Few expect to be better off than our parents. Act 73 turns its back on all of this!

Residents of Addison County’s largest and smallest school districts approved their fiscal year 2027 public education budgets on Tuesday. But two school budgets on the southern end of the country did not pass.

Vergennes Union High School has released its honor roll for the first semester of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Mount Abraham Union High School has released its honor roll for the first semester of the 2025-2026 academic year.

The MAUSD Board on Tuesday unanimously adopted an FY 2027 budget to put before voters that reflects $37,862,780 in total expenses, a rise of 8.51%.

It’s looking increasingly likely that the ACSD might have to shed programming in order to afford even a fraction of the more than $60 million in physical upgrades at its schools.

Residents in Middlebury, Bridport and Salisbury have until Jan. 26 to file petition papers for four available seats that will be up for grabs on the ACSD board.

Lawmakers have a big question awaiting them — how to move forward with the process of transforming Vermont’s education system. There local superintendents weigh in.

Vermont ranks second highest in per pupil costs and second lowest in scholastic achievement. Some sort of reform is drastically needed!

Many people have questions about how the proposed changes to Vermont’s K-12 school system being debated by the Legislature might impact their kids, school, community, or property taxes. To learn more, join Senator Ruth Hardy for a K-12 Education Community … (read more)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month canceled two programs supporting the purchase and distribution of local food, including an initiative that provided funding for Vermont school districts to buy and serve food from area farms and food producers … (read more)

The Addison Central Educational Endowment Fund this fall doled out funds to schools in Addison Central School District for programs that are innovative and beyond the scope of the regular operating budgets.

The Addison Central School District on Monday hired Wendy Baker to be its new superintendent beginning next July.

On February 2, 1936, exactly 45 years to the day before I was born, one of baseball’s greatest pitchers, Christy Matthewson, was officially voted into the inaugural class of the baseball Hall of Fame. To this day, Matthewson still holds the all-time World … (read more)

Public schools across Addison County have been hit by the same worker shortage that has affected most other Vermont employers. All local school districts are having difficulty hiring support staff and substitute teachers.