Starting young: KES 4th-graders prepare to harvest maple sap

Killington Elementary School

Rutland Herald

Friday, March 29, 2019

• By Kate Barcellos Staff Writer
• 14 hrs ago

Killington Elementary School students Drew Gallagher, left, and Adelle Danilchick check the levels in one of their sap buckets at the sugar bush behind the school in Killington Thursday afternoon.
Robert Layman / Staff photo

KILLINGTON — Every year for the past 35 years, the fourth-grade classes at Killington Elementary School wait anxiously for the lengthening daylight and warmer temperatures, when the sweet sap of their maple trees begins to flow.

It’s sugaring season again, and local “sugar master” and former Killington School Board chairman Steve Finneron can often be found at the school leading groups of excited students over the brook and into the forest, where sap lines are strung and buckets hang collecting the sweet water.

“It’s part of the history of the state,” said fourth-grade teacher Shayna Kalnitsky. “It’s an enormous part of the economy. ... There are families in this school and community who depend on sugaring, on honey, on farming for their livelihood.”

Finneron started tapping the trees at KES when his daughter was in fourth grade there, back when all the school had was a propane heater and a stock pot for boiling.

“We put it on cinder blocks and we put plywood around it, so the wind wouldn’t blow it out,” Finneron said. “We only tapped two trees (back then) ... today, we’ll have 21.”

Each of the children taps one tree, and today it was Lucien Fleischner’s turn, and his father, Hans, came along for his son’s big day.

“The kids do (almost) everything,” Finneron said. “This year, we’ve had more parents than we’ve had in a long time. ... Part of it has to do with the jobs the parents have, and whether they can get away during the day.”

Their sugaring season begins in the fall, when Finneron takes the students out to their sap lines in their forest to identify where sweet-toothed critters have found stale sap and gnawed away at the tubing.

Repairing the lines in the fall allow for more sap to flow through come late winter, when the students and their parents haul a plastic garbage bin out into the woods and bury it in the snow — leaving only the lid uncovered — to serve as a naturally-refrigerated sap-collector where the lines spill into.

“We usually start boiling when the trash can is half-way full or more,” Adelle Danilchik said.

“It’s like, a quarter-full right now,” said Leland Hall.

Every year Finneron teaches the students how to use the power drill to punch a hole in the trunk at an angle so the tap allows for gravity-fed sap to run down into the bucket, how to clean out the hole with a twig and how to gently tap the spout into the hole with a hammer so it doesn’t clog up the opening.

“If we blow in the hole (to clear it out) ... it blocks the sap from coming out,” said Lillian Smith. “So if you scoop it out, it doesn’t block the hole.”

“Like scooping out ice cream,” said Adelle. “Except it’s tinier, and you have to be more precise.”

“And since we’re getting all the bacteria out, we don’t want to get more back in it,” Lillian added.

As they approached their newest maple tree, Finneron asked the students how they knew which trees to tap, and where to drive in the spout.

“The tree regrows the wood,” Finneron explained of past tap-holes. “The reason you can’t tap above or below it is, this line is now blocked.”

Taps can be drilled horizontally next to the previous hole, as sap lines run up and down the tree, but once one sap line in the tree is tapped, the tree blocks it to protect itself, Finneron said.

Finneron reached his arms around a tree, which Gallagher then identified as being big enough for one tap as the bigger the tree is, the more sap it would produce.

“A tree needs to be 10 inches in diameter before you can tap it,” Finneron said. “Some people tap smaller, but we don’t do that.”

Finneron marked the depth on the drill they use with a piece of tape, so students know when to stop drilling in the sap stream before they reach the heart line, where there is no flow.

“The middle of every tree has a heart in the middle, and the sap flows outside,” Finneron said.

As Lucien’s father helped deal the final, gentle blow to his son’s tap, a gentle stream of sap drizzled from the spout, and into the bucket Lucien bolted onto the top of the spigot.

“As the season goes along, the sap gets darker,” Finneron said. “When the sap turns yellow, you can’t make maple syrup anymore.”

After tapping the 21st and final tree, Finneron led the students down out of the woods to the sugar shack he helped build in 2002, the year after teacher Maria Garland got a grant from the state.

Entering the sugar shack was, for many of the students, an inaugural and sacred moment: They gazed in awe at the inside walls covered in scrawled signatures of the students who came before them, who boiled their collected sap down for a big, collective pancake breakfast before leaving their name in indelible ink.

As far as the students’ favorite ways to eat maple syrup, most said pancakes, but Lillian claimed a more diversified palate.

“Waffles,” she said. “With whipped cream. And syrup, and also strawberries.”

“I like the strawberries on the side, on a separate plate,” Adelle chimed in. “I like them cold. The pancakes make them hot.”

katelyn.barcellos

@rutlandherald.com

Net Worth: Killington Elementary School students raise money for playground

Rutland Herald

• By Kate Barcellos Staff Writer
• Friday, March 22, 2019

Killington Elementary School sixth-grader Olivia Grasso, left, and sixth grade president Ali Daigle swap out cutting blades for the Cricut design machine, while classmates Celino Eto, back left, and Elle Molalley look on.
Kate Barcellos / Staff Photo

KILLINGTON — Sixth graders found a creative, entrepreneurial way to keep their playground balls from disappearing down the side banks and landing in nearby creeks: start a business and raise money for a net.

Gaga happens to be one of the favorite games on the playground at Killington Elementary: A ball is kicked around an octagonal or hexagonal pen in an effort to tag other players from the knee down, though balls occasionally fly out of the ring and into the woods.

So the sixth-graders, in their final year at the school, decided to create a school store, stocked with original crafts from their class makerspace as a way to leave their mark on a school they said feels like a second home.

Together with sixth-grade teacher Amy Simonds and their laser-cutter Cricut machines, the students set to work in their new makerspace, an idea they credited to librarian Eileen Vaughan, designing and printing decals and illustrations for products they planned to sell at their makers’ market.

“Sixth-graders went around and surveyed each classroom, K-6, to determine what kinds of materials they wanted and needed,” Simonds said.

“There was really nowhere to get all the supplies from (before),” said sixth-grade student Leo Durney.

“(Now) we have magnets that we can put together, plastic straws, Legos and keva planks: wooden planks that you can put together to do really cool engineering projects,” said student Elle Molalley.

Together, the students have already raised more than $551 dollars from the sale of all of their crafts from the market, which took place every day last week, and the entrepreneurs are now taking special orders.

“The makerspace is a dedicated area, where you can put all your imagination and make cool, creative, objects,” said class president Ali Daigle. “With the school store, we made sure everyone had a part in this. You could design whatever you want.”

The students designed creations on their computers before sending designs to the printer, which has several different blades to cut everything from balsa wood to sticker paper. Celino Eto recently had her ears pierced, and she loved her new baubles so much that she decided she would make some for others, shaped like the Killington sign and lightning bolts.

“I had moons too, but they all sold out,” Eto said.

Knowing how popular key chains are, Olivia Grasso designed some for the Killington school, on sale for $5. Matthew Harvey and Kolby Bradley designed their own stickers and bookmarks with the letters “KES” emblazoned across the front.

“I wanted to make something small, but not too small,” Grasso said. “One of my favorite things to buy when I’m traveling to another place is maybe a key chain.”

The students also made friendship bracelets with the Killington colors, royal blue and lime green. Durney and classmate Joffre Legayada designed surprise boxes, octagonal paper boxes filled with a host of secret trinkets to be discovered once it’s purchased: a pint-sized treasure chest.

Molalley and Daigle researched best-selling products, and found mugs to be an ever-popular souvenir, so they designed mountain logos for their Killington Elementary School mugs and sold them for $8 apiece.

“Mugs are something that are hard to beat,” Molalley said.

“The kids really did build their own business model,” Simonds said. “The first step that they all did was they researched the products and materials they could use. From there, they made prototypes, tested their prototypes and eventually made their products. ... We sold out of everything in four days.”

After wild success with their first Cricut machine, Simonds said, the school applied for a grant for three more that were received in November.

The students, some of whom are from other states, said they thought leaving the Gaga net and a mural of themselves, soon to be started, would be a positive way of ushering in the new class of students and encouraging them to leave the school better than when they found it.

“I’ve only been here a year,” Eto said. “I’m really sad, because I have to go back to (New Jersey) my home, and this school is really fun.”

As the leaders of the school, Simonds said, her class has set a standard for next year’s fifth-grade class. She hopes to expand the store as the years go on and the torch is passed onto next year’s sixth-grade class. “It’s wonderful for them to leave their mark,” Simonds said.

katelyn.barcellos

@rutlandherald.com

School board gets $42K in stipends, meetings double

Vermont Standard
03/14/2019
By Neil Allen
Standard Correspondent

On Monday, the Woodstock Central Modified Unified School District held its annual and reorganizational meetings at the Teagle Library at Woodstock Union High School Middle School (WUHSMS).

At the meeting, district officers were elected, district officers and board were given stipends for the upcoming school year and the number of board meetings doubled.

During the annual meeting, the approximately 30 residents chose Matt Maxham as moderator, Tim Bishop as clerk, and Calista Brennan as treasurer for the school district. Each term is for one year.

Paige Hiller of Woodstock made a motion to provide compensation for the moderator at $50 per meeting, $6,500 for the treasurer, and no compensation for the clerk. The motion was seconded, then Jim Haff of Killington made an amendment to add $5,000 stipends for the chair and vice chair, and $50 per meeting, including regular and committee meetings, for up to $2,000 for each board member based on attendance.

A resident asked how much they’re currently receiving. The only officers who currently receive a stipend is the treasurer, which is $6,500, according


to the board.

“Historically, moderators have received $50-100 per meeting from the towns,” said Hiller.

Another resident asked if there would be a change to the taxes.

“It would come from the budget as is,” said Haff.

See SCHOOL BOARD - Page 4A

Matt Maxham, standing, leads the Woodstock Central Modified Unified School District annual meeting held in the Teagle Library at the Woodstock Union High School Middle School on Monday, March 11.



“Why is it changing?” asked a resident.

“Last year we made the same motion and it was only defeated by a few votes,” said Haff. “The chairs work 600-700 hours per year.”

Hiller added, “Each town board gave members a stipend.”

The total cost to the district would be no more than $42,000, according to Rayna Bishop, Executive Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent.

Jennifer Iannantuoni of Killington said, “I’ve been on school boards for 14 years. What I think is fair is mileage. I spend over an hour of driving for each meeting.”

One resident said that she supported it stating she felt they were “more than due” the support and another suggested that it would be a motivating factor for the board members to attend meetings.

The amendment passed unanimously. Then during the discussion for the full motion, it was asked why the clerk was not getting paid.

“Tim is a board member,” Haff said.

“I’d be double dipping,” said Bishop.

Sam DiNatale asked where the funding would be coming from.

“It is not coming from the school budget, it is from the SU (Supervisory Union) budget. We’re not taking from a child,” replied Haff.

The motion passed with a few dissenting votes.

During the reorganization meeting, Haff nominated Hiller as chair and Iannantuoni as vice chair. They were approved unanimously. Tim Bishop was chosen as board clerk.




Hiller discussed the need to move to two meetings per month with one held at the WUHSMS and the other at an elementary school in the district, stating there was just too much work to be done for just one meeting a month.

“In the third hour in a meeting after a long day it is very difficult to make decisions,” said Hiller. “The meetings would be two hours max, hopefully an hour and a half. That is the goal I’m setting for myself.”

The meeting schedule for the rest of the school year was set at last year’s reorganizational meeting, requiring an amendment. The additional school board meeting dates for the current year will be April 1, May 6 and June 3.

The two meetings a month will be the official schedule starting on July 1 for the second and fourth Mondays of every month — depending on when Barnard’s school board meetings are. There are no meetings in July and August. Hiller announced that the first meeting for the next school year will be in September to allow parents and staff to settle into the new school year.

Superintendent Mary Beth Banios reported that the strategic planning committee for Portrait of a Graduate met last Friday and got the last of the feedback from the 30-35 members. She said they are close to the final product in draft form, which will be presented to the towns via forums on April 11 and 25. The completed product should be ready for the board by June, according to Banios.

Banios also reported that the Pre-K class for Woodstock Elementary School was full.

The next meeting will be on April 1, location to be announced.

Edgemont fined by state over lead response

Rutland Herald

March 13, 2019

• By Keith Whitcomb Jr. Staff Writer

The Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced Tuesday that Edgemont Owners Association Inc., which owns Edgemont Condominiums, was fined $11,250.
According to DEC, in September 2015 levels of lead in the Edgemont Condominiums’ water supply were found to be higher than the federal level for which action is required. When this happens, certain steps have to be taken to protect users of the system as per Vermont law. According to DEC, “Edgemont failed to provide educational materials for water-supply users, install corrosion control treatment within the required time frame, check the lead content of the water entering the system or monitor for corrosion.”

DEC said in 2016 it provided the Edgemont Owners Association with two formal notices of the violations along with directives for getting the water system back into compliance with state law. In the spring of 2018, the Edgemont Owners Association accomplished this. It then agreed to pay the $11,250 fine, which was approved by Vermont Superior Court Environmental Division on March 4.
George Enczer, president of the Edgemont Owners Association, declined to comment for this story.
According to Ben Montross, compliance and support services section chief of the Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Division of DEC, said Tuesday the standard for lead is that 90 percent of samples taken have to be at or below 0.015 mg/L. The samples taken from the Edgemont system on Sept. 24, 2015, were 0.016 mg/L.

“Lead samples are collected within a prescribed number of residences served by the system,” he said. “In this instance, the system collected five samples. Lead in the drinking water was the result of the water traveling through and residing in piping and plumbing parts that contain various amounts of lead. We are not aware of any lead piping in the system; the most likely source of lead is lead-containing solder, brass or other plumbing components, often within the individual residences.”
keith.whitcomb
@rutlandherald.com

Five-cent increase slated for property taxes in Killington

Vermont Standard

3/7/19

By Curt Peterson

Standard Correspndent

t

Select Board Chair Steve Finneran stood in as moderator for the absent Paul Buhler.
Curt Peterson Photo

KILLINGTON — Killington voters will decide all eight articles by Australian ballot on Tuesday, March 5, but they gathered Monday evening before in the elementary school gym to hear and discuss the proposed choices.

Select Board Chair Steve Finneran stood in as moderator for the absent Paul Buhler. He said he hoped turnout for voting on Tuesday would be much better than the 60 people attending the information session.

Selectwoman Patty McGrath, a Killington resident for 28 years, is running for re-election against resident Chuck Claffey, who moved to Killington in 2015, in the only election contest this year.

Both candidates are focused on improving fiscal sustainability, and

would emphasize rehabilitating town infrastructure.

The proposed general fund budget totals $4,676,767, which will increase the prop- erty tax rate by five cents,

according to Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth, who said the increase will add about $135 to taxes on a $250,000 home. The projected municipal tax rate is $.4665 per $100 assessed value.

The next three articles would authorize new town debt.

East Mountain Road and Dean Hill Road reconstruction will cost up to $1,000,000, Hagenbarth said. Any grants will reduce the amount borrowed. He said the roads are beyond patching or coating.

A new Public Safety Building for fire, emergency squad and police on townowned land will require authorizing the town to borrow up to $4,775,000, according to the town manager. Net debt service cost would not be significantly affected, he

said, as existing bond payments would cease.

The Killington Volunteer Fire Department has pledged to contribute all net proceeds from sale of the current facility towards construction of the new building.

The town needs to borrow $588,000 to resolve lingering Tropical Storm Irene issues, Hagenbarth said. After the storm Killington had requested funds to replace culverts with more expensive bridges as required by the state. Because the state regulations had not been officially approved at the

time of Killington’s application, FEMA would only pay the lesser cost of culverts. Believing they would be reimbursed later, the town built the bridges and applied for additional funds — the bridge requirement had been approved in the meantime.

“Not only did they turn down that request,” Select Board member Jim Haff said, “they decided the earlier reimbursement was an error. Now they want that money back.”



Killington has appealed.

“We should know the outcome in 90 days,” Haff said.

Killington has only $100,000 net cash reserves. Auditors have strongly advised three months’ expenses be reserved for planned and unanticipated expenses. Article 7 would approve creating a designated reserve fund “to cover revenue shortfalls and to pay nonrecurring and unanticipated general and highway fund expenses,” to be funded from surpluses in future years, which would increase the reserve account until it reaches recommended level — about $1 million, Hagenbarth said.

“If all the Articles are approved,” Hagenbarth said, “the tax rate will go up just two cents, but not until next [2021] year — but not this [2020] year.”

The Green Mountain National Golf Course reported a loss of $50,000 in the Town Report. Haff said a new management company running the operations is improving the GMNGC financial pic ture “a little at a time”, and that the 2018 loss was actually about $10,000.

Rutland, Chittenden and Killington State Representative Jim Harrison spoke about a proposal by Montpelier to allow legal, non-citizen legal residents to vote on local issues.

Harrison said the legislature has been making large donations for seven or eight years to catch up regarding $4.5 billion in underfunded state pension accounts.

Three issues dominated attention in the run-up to the election: the 2020 budget, the new Public Services Building, and the race for Patty McGrath’s Select



At left, Selectwoman Patty McGrath is running for re-election. On the right, Killington resident Vito Rasenas asks about the golf course. Curt Peterson Photos

The budget and the PSB each passed with 2 to 1 margins – over 300 voters participated on these two Articles and the Select Board contest.

Charles “Chuck” Claffey defeated two-term veteran selectwoman Patty Mc-Grath 202 to 110, also a 2 to 1 margin. The upset may have surprised anyone who attended the Killington Pico Area Association sponsored “Meet the Candidates” event February 25, or who relied on brief statements made by McGrath and Claffey at Monday evening’s information meeting – both candidates seemed to agree on what is important and how to accomplish town goals, and neither distinguished themselves from the other in any significant way on those

two occasions.

Selectman Jim Haff, asked his opinion, said only, “Chuck rocks.” Haff had lost to McGrath in 2016 when she ran for re-election. He then won for Chris Bianchi’s vacated seat.

An advocate for Claffey, Haff wrote a letter to the local Killington newspaper on February 24 endorsing Claffey’s candidacy. In the letter Haff cited historic events he thought demonstrated the difference between Claffey’s and Mc-Grath’s approaches.

"He's strong with finan cials and has some no-nonsense beliefs on the town’s role in the community,” Haff wrote. “This year I’m looking to enhance the makeup of the Select


Board, please vote for Chuck Claffey.

The Vermont Standard was unable to reach either candidate directly for a comment on the election outcome.

Voters approved every Article, including the proposed $4,676,767 2020 budget, $1,000,000 borrowing to reconstruct Dean Hill and East Mountain Roads, financing a

new Public Services Building for up to $4,775,000, borrowing $588,000 to complete Tropical Storm Irene damage, and creating a designated reserve account to be funded from future budget surpluses.

Claffey defeats McGrath, all articles pass

March 5, 2019

Mountain Times

Newcomer Chuck Claffey widely defeated incubment Patty McGrath 202-110 votes at Town Meeting Day Tuesday, March 5.
McGrath has lived in Killington for 28 years and served as selectwoman for six. She said earlier contention on the board is no longer an issue and the town is moving toward fiscal sustainability. She wants to continue to be part of the progress.
Claffey moved to Killington in 2015. He and his wife have been active in the community since their arrival. His focus is also on improving fiscal sustainability.
Killington voters approved all article on the ballot, including the $4.6 million budget, 216-94, incurring a 5-cent increase in their property tax rate to .4655. Town Manager Chet Hagenbarth said the 15 percent increase will raise taxes on a $250,000 home about $135. Additionally, the “yes” votes on Articles 4 and 6 will trigger another 1.9 cent increase for a total of 6.9-cent jump on Killington’s municipal tax rate. The $4.7m public safety building (Article 5), which also passed, will not affect the tax rate as those payments are scheduled to begin as other bonds retire. 

Article 1 – Chuck Claffey defeated Patty McGrath 202-110
Article 2 – voting taxes paid in three installments– passed 241-21
Article 3 – $4,676,767general fund expenditures — passed 216-94
Article 4- $1 million for East Mtn Road and Dean Hill Road – passed 229-80
Article 5- $4,775,000 to construct a public safety building– passed 207-105
Article 6 – $588,000 to fund Irene debt – passed 243-65
Article 7 – to establish a reserve fund – passed 244-58
Article 8 – $500 to NeighborWorks – passed 228-82