VSBA Action Alert: Legislature Poised to Pull $13M out of Local Budgets

Dear School Board Member, We just learned that negotiations between the House and Senate leadership and the Governor have not yielded an agreement on school employee health insurance.  Instead, the House and Senate leadership intend to move forward with a proposal to take $13 million out of school district budgets and have school boards continue to negotiate health insurance. You can read about the proposal, which was developed by Senator Tim Ashe here.  The specifics may be revealed later today, but the thrust is that the state will take $13 million from school district budgets in a manner proportional to the number of "covered lives" in a school district. Last night, the Governor issued a response to this proposal, which you can read here. We believe the proposal from the House and Senate leadership is disrespectful to the school boards, educators and taxpayers of this state.  Vermont’s education system depends on a partnership between state and local officials.  Progress on shared goals should be accomplished through collaboration.  In that spirit, the Vermont School Boards Association and Vermont Superintendents Association developed a proposal to establish a statewide health insurance benefit in order to assist the state in its quest to achieve property tax relief without damaging education quality.  The proposal would both reduce costs and protect employees and their families. Rather than take responsibility for PreK-12 cost growth by playing a role in negotiating health insurance benefits with school employees, the House and Senate are poised to take financial resources from school district budgets and leave school boards and taxpayers holding the bag. Please act now to urge your senators and representatives to reject this proposal that has Montpelier taking money from school districts without taking any responsibility for assisting with cost containment.  AND ask them to convey your concerns to House Speaker Mitzi Johnson and Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe. You may find a list of representatives and senators by SU here. Sincerely, Nicole

Published By: Vermont School Boards Association and Vermont Superintendents Association Attn: Emily Simmons, 2 Prospect St., Montpelier, VT 05602 (802)-223-358

Joseph McDonald

http://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501451368/here-is-what-donald-trump-wants-to-do-in-his-first-100-days?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=202709

 

Below is the 100-day plan Trump's campaign released in October, called "Donald Trump's Contract With The American Voter."

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What follows is my 100-day action plan to Make America Great Again. It is a contract between myself and the American voter — and begins with restoring honesty, accountability and change to Washington
Therefore, on the first day of my term of office, my administration will immediately pursue the following six measures to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, DC:
* FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;
* SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);
* THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;
* FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;

* FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;

* SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
On the same day, I will begin taking the following 7 actions to protect American workers:
* FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205
* SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
* THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator
* FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately

* FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.

* SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward
* SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure
Additionally, on the first day, I will take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
* FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama
* SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States
* THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities
* FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won't take them back
* FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.
Next, I will work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of my Administration:

1. Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.
2. End The Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.
4. School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.
5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.
6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.
7. End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.
8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.
9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values
10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.

On November 8th, Americans will be voting for this 100-day plan to restore prosperity to our economy, security to our communities, and honesty to our government.
This is my pledge to you.
And if we follow these steps, we will once more have a government of, by, and for the people.

ACT 46 POWER GRAB

 

BRAM TOWBIN: ACT 46 POWER GRAB

SEP. 19, 2016, 7:05 PM BY COMMENTARY 5 COMMENTS

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Bran Towbin, the Plainfield Selectboard chair and road commissioner who is running for the Washington 6 state representative seat. He also is owner of a wholesale flower farm in Plainfield.

The towns of Calais, Worcester and Middlesex have wonderful elementary schools by any measure. This is due to the dedication of administrators and a caring community. One board member crawled into the attic to personally install insulation to save taxpayer dollars. Calais and Worcester have managed to produce these results by fully repaying loans, there is no debt on their books. How has Montpelier rewarded this extraordinary record of accomplishment? By trying to disband their local boards and raising the possibilities that these schools will be closed due to inefficiency. It’s called Act 46.

On paper, this law tries to address five critical problems: provide equity in education, help students exceed standards, maximize operational efficiencies, promote transparency and accountability, and deliver taxpayer value. The approach is to centralize power via forced consolidation. The smaller school boards would be replaced by larger regional boards with membership based on population; the more residents, the more representation. In this scenario one could easily see smaller towns being outvoted and having their local schools closed in the effort to create “efficiencies.”

One would think this would be a “win” for larger schools. Strangely the Berlin School Board, one of the largest in the district consisting of Berlin, Calais, Worcester, East Montpelier and Middlesex, is dropping out. I asked Carl Parton, a seasoned school board member, why they’re abandoning the process? To paraphrase his response, “Well I was excited about Act 46’s goals, but when you look at the actual effects of the law, the result is zero for five in terms of accomplishment.” His concerns are not only that his school would lose control, but that the debt of the other towns would be forced on his local taxpayers. This fear was echoed by other districts. Under the new rubric, Berlin, Worcester and Calais would subsidize Middlesex and East Montpelier. This policy seems to metaphorically sanction robbing from the poor to pay the rich. Not surprisingly, East Montpelier, with a whopping $8.17 million note, may be more keen on the process. It is interesting that Montpelier is insulated from the internecine school conflict as their student population excludes them from having to consider the “preferred education government structure.” This is the actual jargon listed in the law betraying the bias lawmakers have baked into the process. This is a legislative ruse to give the appearance of not forcing a solution. The law READS as if there is another way forward. Towns have the possibilities of creating “alternative solutions.” The problem is that the hardworking, overburdened school boards must jump through so many hoops that the possibility of taking other paths is an illusion.

Vermont values, however, are rooted in small towns. The Legislature needs to do the arduous work of speaking plainly to plain folks. In the end taxpayers are going to know the truth.

The Legislature, combined with Gov. Shumlin’s cheerleading, sold this bill as a fix to rising school costs and uncomfortable choices. The governor told tales of smaller, inefficient schools with poor outcomes. There are probably cases where that exists and Act 46 is a remedy. In the Calais School District the law exacerbates problems, rather than creating solutions. The ugly specter of town vs. town is unleashed with good neighbors turning against one another. Accusations will fly that each community is acting selfishly rather than considering the best interests of our children. The cause of this strife is a badly written law with a misguided, albeit well intentioned, cookie-cutter approach to problem solving. It will wreak havoc.

The Golden Dome has been in the habit of creating legislative fixes that try to smooth the rough edges of a democratic process only to foment rancor at the local level. The temptation is understandable for lawmakers and administrators. Why deal with troublesome school boards when you can dictate policy via superintendents and the Agency of Education? This mirrors the unfortunate inclusion of small towns in the Act 64 water cleanup bill. Municipal road foremen aren’t known to be a political juggernaut and can easily be coerced into doing a great deal of expensive dirty work.

Vermont values, however, are rooted in small towns. The Legislature needs to do the arduous work of speaking plainly to plain folks. In the end taxpayers are going to know the truth. There are difficult decisions to be made. There are difficult conversations to be had. It is understandable that consolidation of power is attractive to people who want solutions. Sadly we need to recognize that squelching small voices leads to bigger problems. We all respect the work of credentialed officials and those with doctorates in education. The taxpayer, however, gives more deference to the school board member installing the insulation in the attic. Those people can’t be left silently standing in the corner. Their children are in those classrooms. Their tax dollars are being spent. They don’t need a lecture about the process. They need to be driving the discussion. That is the Vermont preferred solution.

Cider Days vendor application

From: Morgan Skiathitis

Don't forget to get your Cider Days vendor application to me by August 31st. Applications received after this date will not be excepted. E-mail Morgan at morganskiathitis@gmail.com for an application.

“The Great Outdoors” Saturday, September 10, 2016

New Chamber Member, Popolo, Presents “The Great Outdoors” Saturday, September 10, 2016

A Dining Field Trip to Coolidge State Park with New Music By The Renowned Arc Iris

If the mountain won’t come to Popolo, Popolo will go to the mountain. On Saturday, September 10, the Bellows Falls community restaurant is presenting an evening in the Great Outdoors at Calvin Coolidge State Park in Plymouth, VT.

The night starts with a prix fixe five-course dinner featuring New England game and area vegetables prepared and served by Popolo’s fine kitchen and service staff. Every course comes from area farmers, fisherman, and artisanal producers. Known for both its seasonal menus and its regular events, Popolo is no stranger to this sort of out-of-the-box concept.

“We’ll be going off-menu for this event,” reports Tim Cocheo, Popolo’s head chef. “We’re serving a woodsy selection of dishes custom-designed for dining al fresco on the top of a mountain. It’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime feast in a transcendent open-air setting.” The full menu will be posted shortly.

For the true Epicureans a wine pairing is available for an additional $40.00, selected by Popolo’s own wine fairy, Kristen Fehrenbach.

Dinner will be served in high style on china and linens in the old Ski Shelter on Bradley Hill. The shelter’s handsomely restored timber construction and two massive stone fireplaces open onto westward sunset views of Killington and the breathtaking grandeur of the Green Mountain National Forest. It’s a setting in which you might find Julie Andrews spinning ecstatically with arms outstretched. But the night goes one better.

After the sun goes behind the mountains, renowned national touring artists, Arc Iris, will take the stage and debut their long-awaited album, “Moon Saloon.” Fronted by ex-Low Anthem multi-instrumentalist Jocie Adams, Arc Iris has visited Popolo several times to rave reviews. The band’s music has matured into a genre all its own and along the way has garnered extraordinary reviews from NPR, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and The New York Times, which claimed that Arc Iris’s music “inhabits its own otherworldly place, where ghosts and angels hover just out of view.”

An unusual choice for a concert in such an unlikely locale, the band jumped at the opportunity.

“Who doesn’t love a magical event,” notes the band’s Ms. Adams, “so how could we say no to an show on a mountaintop!”

Calvin Coolidge State Park was built in the 1930s by the Citizens Conservation Corp and is one of the most beautiful parks in the Vermont State Park system. The spectacular landscaping highlights 36 adirondack lean-tos, some with unparalleled views of the surrounding mountains and their original stone hearth fireplaces.

Asked why the restaurant would go to so much trouble, Popolo’s manager, Gary Smith, doesn’t mince words, “There’s a range of things one can do to make the world better– charitable giving, community service, job creation – the list is long. Popolo tries to be part of this, of course, but often overlooked is the simple building of great memories. This is a fabulous setting, a great menu, and extraordinary music. For just one night a small group of people can indulge in the best of tastes and sights and sounds the world has to offer. Why the heck not?”

Reservations are required and seating is limited. Tickets are $68 which includes five courses, the musical performance, and, if you please, camping is free of charge. There’s a full cash bar aptly named “The Moon Saloon” serving traditional and event-specific signature cocktails.

Popolo will be closed for lunch and dinner on Saturday September 10, to create this special event in the mountains. If inclement weather causes the cancellation of the event, tickets are fully refundable.

More info and tickets are available at popolomeanspeople.com and in the restaurant at 36 The Square, Bellows Falls or by phoning 802-460-7676.

Continue the hilarity...

Watch Christopher Lloyd as Reverend Jim take his driving test on Taxi...
and then continue the hilarity
as Judd Hirsch joins in the tribute to Christopher Lloyd
Sunday, August 7 at Weston Honors

THE LINK:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39k067hcgYY

See below for ticket information including a private dinner to follow

...and be a part of this special celebration! View this email in your browser Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2016 Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or you attended a production or event. Our mailing address is: Weston Playhouse Theatre Company 703 Main Street Weston, VT 05161 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Taxi - Reverend Jim's Driving Test

Taxi - Reverend Jim's Driving Test

Declare Your Bookstore Independence!

Declare Your Bookstore Independence!

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Scott Stearns [The Book Nook]

Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore Day! 

Declare Your Bookstore Independence!

The Book Nook will celebrate our bookstore independence on April 30 from 10am - 5pm at the store on Main Street in Ludlow, VT. We will have our new "For the Love of Reading" t-shirts for sale.  We will have special Independent Bookstore items for sale.

Scott

The Book Nook
An independent bookstore in Ludlow, Vermont
http://www.thebooknookvt.com

What's the WPA? Find Out on Sunday

Scott Stearns [The Book Nook] <scott@thebooknookvt.com>	1:01 PM (3 hours ago)
to me

In May 1935, as part of the great return-to-work effort known as the Works Progress Administration (the WPA) President Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought Americans back to work in the service of the rebuilding of a society staggering under the weight of the Great Depression. Under the Federal Art Project of the WPA, these workers included artists, writers, actors, and musicians: for FDR believed that in order to lift ourselves out of economic stagnation we would also need to rebuild the culture of America at the grass roots level.
On Sunday, May 1, the Mount Holly Town Library and The Book Nook will co-sponsor a screening of “Enough to Live On: The Arts of the WPA” at the Mount Holly School. Independent filmmakers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of 217 Films will introduce the film and take questions following the screening.

Featuring more than 70 works of art from this period, including notable works by Rockwell Kent, Dorothea Lange, Stuart Davis, and Reginald Marsh, as well as rare footage of WPA artists at work, this film tells the story of how Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal moved art in America out of the rarified atmosphere of the elite and brought it directly to the American people as an inspiration and catalyst for change and recovery in the 1930s.

WHAT:
Screening of 217 Films’ “Enough to Live On: The Arts of the WPA”
Director Michael Maglaras and executive producer Terri Templeton will introduce the film and take questions following the screening. Co-sponsored by Mount Holly Town Library and The Book Nook.

WHEN:
Sunday, May 1
4:00 PM

WHERE:
Mount Holly School
150 School St.
Mount Holly, Vermont

COST:
Free and open to the public
Scott

The Book Nook
An independent bookstore in Ludlow, Vermont
http://www.thebooknookvt.com

Cookies $4/dozen; Pies $15 ea.; Organic Seeds; Bake Sales!

Cookies $4/dozen; Pies $15 ea.; Organic Seeds; Bake Sales!

Aiyana Fortin, junior at Black River, applied for and was accepted into the Bioengineering and Nanotechnology module of Project SMART at the University of New Hampshire. This month long pre-college program will provide an in-depth experience and conversation about genetic manipulation, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research, biotechnology in agriculture, medicine, and the environment, biological warfare, nano-technology and templates, STM-scanning tunneling microscope, and "nano-fear."  To raise the tuition of $3,200 for this program, Aiyana will be doing multiple bake sale fundraisers.

Cookies! She will be taking orders for a cookie sale, at $4/dozen, from April 25 to 29, and she'll deliver these on May 3 and 4 in Ludlow and Mount Holly. She is baking chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies (her great-great-grandmother's recipe!), oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter cookies.

Organic Seeds! She will also be taking orders for High Mowing organic seeds, a Vermont based company, from April 25 to May 9. The seeds come in 25 tasty varieties and also in boxed gift sets. Contact Aiyana Fortin at 259-3800 to order or for more information.

Pies! Aiyana will also be taking orders for pies, at $15 each, from April 25 to May 20. They will be available to be picked up in front of Shaw's from 8:30am to 1pm on Saturday, May 28. She is accepting orders for blueberry, apple, swedish apple (gluten free available), strawberry rhubarb, peach, pear, pumpkin, egg custard, and vinegar pies. 

Bake Sales! There will be two bake sales: one in front of Brewfest Beverage & Co. on Saturday May 14 from 10am to 2pm, and one in front of Shaw's on Saturday May 28 from 8:30am to 1pm.

Please contact Aiyana Fortin to support her in this endeavor at 259-3800, email aiyana.fortin@trsu.org, or in-person.    Thank you!!!

The Intellectual Case For Trump II: The Culture Warrior

If you can’t be bothered to read it, don’t bother responding...

 

An Excerpt...

A candidate like Donald Trump should be impossible. A loud, unscripted, hard-edged reality show-style candidate with exceedingly flexible positions on many hot-button issues would be laughed out of contention for the Republican nomination in other years. A man whose serial gaffes and willingness to stick his thumb in the eye of the gatekeepers of good taste would be cooked before he stepped onto the debate stage.  An utterly inexperienced politician, who describes our rights and privileges as particular to us as Americans rather than universal moral mandates, would be rejected by both parties at any other time in the modern era.

But in Trump’s case, these supposedly disqualifying positions and attributes have proven to be the basis for unexpected success. Why? In part, it is because he corrects massive ideological failures by the Right, which have enabled unmitigated cultural overreach by the Left, eliminating the social and cultural basis that permits a Western liberal order to exist.

For decades, the institutional Right has ceded American culture to the Left, in spite of many voices who pointed out ample areas where the Right could carve out a countercultural movement against leftist domination, or even co-opt some of modern culture for itself

The cause of this is partially a denial of how swiftly the culture has moved Left, leaving the institutional Right under the false impression it is still fighting the culture war of the 90’s and early 2000s. The Right’s obsession with 90’s-era battles over sex, drugs, and rock and roll is more than just an anachronism: it represents a self-inflicted wound that ignored how the Left used the culture to repeatedly make the case for their vision of an ideal society. We now know the Left won that war, and in this context, Trump represents the first candidate for whom success could only come after a culture war apocalypse.

 

 

More at...

http://thefederalist.com/2016/04/20/the-intellectual-case-for-trump-ii-trump-is-the-culture-warrior-we-need/#.VxesnlU-Ju0.twitter

 

All the best

jcmcd