Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
CTES principal candidates meet the public
By Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC On the face of it, the two candidates hoping to become the next principal of the Cavendish Town Elementary School couldn’t be more different. For one, it would be her first principal post, while the other has nearly 25 years of principal experience at several elementary schools. At […]
Two members returned to GM District Board Anger, confusion reigns in meeting attended by 100+
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC By the end of an especially chaotic meeting on Wednesday night, the Green Mountain Unified School District Board did not interview candidates for principal of Cavendish Town Elementary nor did it appoint a new principal, as was on the agenda. Instead, it formally accepted the resignation of […]
GM calls off CTES principal forum after candidate drops out Special board meeting will go forward to look at next steps
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC A forum for the public to meet and ask questions of two candidates for principal of the Cavendish Town Elementary School tonight was called off when one of the choices – Donna Bazyk – informed Superintendent Lauren Fierman that she had taken another job. Fierman told The […]
News Analysis: Did GM follow the ‘Rules’ in mascot vote?
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC In the confusion that followed the end of last week’s Green Mountain Unified School District meeting, Vice Chair Adrienne Williams asked how Robert’s Rules of Order would handle the complicated situation that had just unfolded. See Friday’s article: GM votes to keep Chieftain … At that moment, […]
Residents, dogs escape house fire in Springfield
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Two residents and two dogs escaped a house fire at 39 Chester Road in Springfield this afternoon. A third resident who was working nearby only realized what was happening when police cars rushed down his driveway. Just before 1:30 p.m., the Springfield Fire Department was called to […]
GM board votes to keep Chieftain; Fierman, 3 members resign Board member cites confusing motion, spotty internet in vote that upheld name
By Shawn Cunningham and Cynthia Prairie 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The divisive issue of using the Chieftain name by Green Mountain High School came to a head at last night’s school district board meeting and, by the time it was over, the board in effect voted to keep the “Chieftains” name and three of its […]
GM board offers Bellows Falls principal contract
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a public forum and an interview with two candidates on Monday night, the Green Mountain Unified School District board voted to offer Bellows Falls Union High Principal John Broadley the principal post at Green Mountain High when Keith Hill steps down at the end of June. […]
Pajala to sit on House impeachment inquiry panel
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC State Rep. Kelly Pajala of Londonderry is one of seven House members who were appointed to a special committee concerning the impeachment inquiry to “investigate the conduct and potential wrongdoing of Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore and State’s Attorney John Lavoie, according to a press release from […]
Tractor trailer rollover shuts down Rt.11 for nearly 12 hours
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC For nearly 12 hours on Thursday, Route 11 at Elm Street in Chester was closed as emergency crews worked to recover a tractor trailer that rolled over while exiting Gold River Industrial Park. According to a Chester Police press release, Howard Hubert Jardine, 58, of Arlington Mass. […]
Chester Select Board suggests alterations to zoning proposals
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its Wednesday, May 3 meeting, the Chester Select Board held a hearing to review a set of amendments to the town’s zoning regulations known as Unified Development Bylaws. And while they thanked the Planning Commission for its work, in the end they sent the amendments back […]
Chester board hears legal processes to address Julian quarry violations
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a memorandum to the Chester Select Board, municipal attorney Jim Carroll characterized the process for enforcing violations of land use rules under the town’s Unified Development Bylaws as “often-lengthy” and “expensive.” The memo was reviewed by the board in executive session on Wednesday, May 3 and […]
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 […]
Chester Select Board, Planning Commission to hold hearings on land use changes
By Shawn Cunningham 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board and the Planning Commission will be holding separate hearings in the next two weeks on proposed changes to the Unified Development Bylaws that land owners will want to pay attention to. At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3 the Chester Select Board will hold […]
Chester planners propose new district to spur housing
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC After internal dissension of Chester’s Planning Commission burst into the open two years ago, with that panel removing its chair and the Select Board declining to re-appoint one member, the group seems to have found its focus. At first, the commission looked at ways to amend the […]
Cavendish school concerns rise to top at GM board meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The agenda for last Thursday’s Green Mountain Unified School District board meeting looked pretty tame compared to recent meetings but, as it unfolded, the board’s discussion was described by some in terms of “animosity” and by others in terms of “intensity” and passion. The difference depended on […]
Chester board makes planning appointments, reduces cannabis commission
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board’s April 19 meeting was pretty much an exercise in housekeeping with some interviews and appointments for town boards as well as routine approvals and updates on old business. After public comment and old business, the board appointed Deb Aldrich to the positions of […]
Merrill sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of child porn
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Former Green Mountain middle school teacher Norman Merrill, a Chester resident who plead guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material, was sentenced on Monday afternoon to 10 years in federal prison by Judge Christina Reiss in Burlington. On May 19, 2022, a federal grand jury in […]
Chester Citizen Police Advisory Committee holds its first meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The newly appointed members of Chester’s Citizen Police Advisory Committee came together for an initial meeting Tuesday night at the Public Safety Building on Pleasant Street. The committee’s members — Frank Kelley, Samantha Snedorf-Bailey, Roy Spaulding, Wendi Germain and Vincent Buckholz — were appointed by the Chester […]
GM board hears complaints that Chieftain name violates policy
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Tuesday night, Chester resident Matt Gorsky told the Green Mountain Unified School Board that the harm in using the Chieftain name is “in the inescapable connection between it and 50 years of a racist mascot depicting people this country has conducted cultural genocide against….” He was […]
Fierman to TRSU board: departures are for individual personal reasons
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC At the regular monthly meeting of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union Board last Thursday, Superintendent Lauren Fierman briefed that body on the recent spate of administrators departing the system. “I know from the outside it looks like as though there must be something awful happening that all […]
