Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
Update on the Future: No silver bullets to cutting costs
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC As school districts are working on their 2025-26 budgets, the deadline for the preliminary report from the state Commission on the Future of Public Education’s — including short term cost containment strategies — is fast approaching. The message from recent subcommittee meetings is that it’s complicated and […]
Chester board says ‘no’ to new zoning idea, asks for tweaks to the rest of the plan Emails, in-person contacts influence the decision
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC If you have ever thought that talking to or writing your local officials is not effective, the Chester Select Board meeting of Nov. 6 might change your mind. Over the course of a couple of meetings, the board has been looking at something called “density-based zoning,” which […]
No one injured as Sunday morning fire destroys Chester home
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC A fire Sunday morning on Jewett Road in Chester destroyed a home and an outbuilding, but no one was injured as the homeowner escaped the building amid black smoke. According to Chester Police Chief Tom Williams, around 9:15 a.m. this morning, a motorist spotted smoke coming from […]
Local Republican Senate candidates make strong showing against north county Democrats Incumbents Clarkson and White, newcomer Major take Windsor Senate seats
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Republicans from Cavendish, Ludlow and Weathersfield showed electoral strength on Tuesday running for seats in the Windsor County Senate delegation against a slate of Democrats from the northern part of the county. And while they lost overall, their campaigns were a clear challenge to a longstanding majority […]
Republicans victorious in two of three local State House seats In Chester, incumbent Chase loses to newcomer Charlton
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Republican candidates found enough traction Tuesday to flip two local State House seats held by Democrats, while a Democratic candidate was victorious in a district that has been held by independents for a decade. Anger over higher school and property taxes — and a perceived dysfunction in […]
GM board votes to preview restructuring plan, overriding superintendent’s schedule
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a bid to moderate reaction to an administration-generated restructuring plan for the three schools within the Green Mountain Unified School District, TRSU Superintendent Layne Millington said he would not reveal the plan until the next GM board meeting, on Thursday Nov. 21. But, following board member […]
Ed finance panel delays internal deadline for cost-containment suggestions Kornheiser calls commission timeline 'impossible'
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Anyone who watched the Sept. 30 meeting of the Education Finance subcommittee of Vermont’s Commission on the Future of Public Education might well have expected that this Monday’s session would see members hammering out a list of short-term cost containment ideas to present to the full commission […]
Future of Education panel sets first public input session for Oct. 21 Commenter asks to make education jargon understandable
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Commission on the Future of Public Education in Vermont will hold its first in-person public feedback session from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 21 at the Randolph High School/Technical & Career Center, 17 Forest St. in Randolph. It will be preceded by a full […]
First a lockdown drill, then a real lockdown at GMUHS as Chester Police investigate threat
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham ©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC A report of a person with a gun threatening to hurt people at Green Mountain Union High School may have been a hoax perpetrated by a group that has conducted similar swatting calls around the country, but the Chester Police weren’t taking any chances. “We […]
Education finance panel brainstorms cost containment
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Education Finance subcommittee of Vermont’s Commission on the Future of Public Education met for the second time on Monday. In the first two hours of a three and a half hour meeting, the committee received presentations by the Agency of Education and the Vermont Tax Department. […]
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 […]
Derry goat farmer tests fenceless tech at Magic
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than three quarters of the way up Magic Mountain on a sunny September afternoon, Aimee Braxmeier sets up a yell. From up one of the mountain’s steep ski trails – far enough to be out of sight – comes bleating of goats. After a couple more […]
Chester board reopens vicious dog hearing for new testimony; orders Beau euthanized Interim fire chief, two housing commission members named
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Wednesday, Sept. 4, the Chester Select Board reopened a vicious dog hearing from early August to take testimony from the dog’s owner, accept documents into evidence and consider an alternative to euthanasia, which the board had ordered. Terri Steele, the owner of Beau, a white dog […]
Kicking off the school year in style with music and circus
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC On a picture perfect Thursday evening, the Two Rivers Supervisory Union kicked off the school year in style with the West Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cirque Kikasse troupe performing on the playing field of Chester-Andover Elementary School with everyone in the SU’s communities invited. Playing Fields is […]
Chester GOP holds event for State House candidate Tom Charlton
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Around 40 people turned out in front of the Fullerton Inn in Chester on a cool, blustery Sunday afternoon to hear Vermont House candidate Tom Charlton speak on a wide range of topics including infrastructure, education and the state’s “clean heat standard.” But the event’s main message […]
Chester native’s animated short tells of Romaine Tenney’s ‘Love of the Land’ Film to be presented by Van Alstyne at Springfield Cinema
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Sixty years ago, just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 12, 1964, Weathersfield volunteer firefighters were called out to the Tenney farm, where a multi-building blaze glowed brightly in the late night summer sky. Romaine Tenney, a 64-year-old farmer whose lifelong home was to be taken by the […]
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 […]
Pair attempt armed robbery at Rockingham cannabis shop Monday bank heists in Brattleboro, Bellows Falls may be connected
By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC A robbery was attempted at a cannabis shop in Rockingham Monday afternoon, Vermont State Police said, adding that the incident may be connected to bank robberies in Brattleboro and Bellows Falls earlier in the day. Police are looking for a man and a woman who they say […]
Truck takes down wires on Rt. 11 leaving hundreds without power
UPDATE: Route 11 is open to one lane as of 6:30 p.m. Please drive slowly By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Lights flickered and internet service sputtered throughout Chester and Andover around 1:30 p.m. today as a truck carrying an oversized load snagged wires on Route 11 near Motel in the Meadow in […]
GMUSD board mulls finances, new bond effort, restructuring
By Shawn Cunningham ©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Late summer board meetings are often sparsely populated, with both members and the public on vacation, and light on topics to tackle. But while the former was true of the Thursday, Aug. 15 Green Mountain Unified School District board meeting, the latter was not. With just five members […]
