Archive - Feb 22, 2010
MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Education Commissioner Armando Vilaseca on Wednesday served notice to local school directors that the state’s public school system will have to go through a substantial transformation in order to adapt to diminishing revenues, lower student numbers and ever changing technology.
FERRISBURGH — Porter Hospital midwife Martha Redpath had just returned to her Ferrisburgh home from a long night attending two births when husband Gary Lange asked what she would like to do for her 52nd birthday, which was coming up a couple days later on Feb. 3.
What Redpath ended up getting for her birthday — albeit belatedly on Feb. 13 — could be called priceless, although it came with a figure: $11,116.
MIDDLEBURY — Porter Medical Center is making slow and steady progress toward a massive $4.4 million project to bring the hospital’s information system and medical records into the 21st century.
Though the finished project is still more than two years out and the hospital is waiting on state approval to move forward, hospital administrators are confident that the new information technology could improve the quality of care at the hospital.
MIDDLEBURY — After 25 years in the senior care business, the owners of Addison House announced last week that they’re shutting the doors to the College Street community care facility.
Owners Sharon Thompson, Barbara O’Hehir and Marcia Wheeler notified the home’s staff and residents last week that the facility would be shutting down in 90 days. They’ve been gearing up to close for a year, Thompson said, but wanted to take the transition slowly to affect the fewest residents possible.
Addison House is home to seven residents, down from a high of 17.
MIDDLEBURY — The Addison Central Supervisory Union (ACSU) board on Wednesday chose not to take action on Associate Superintendent Janice Willey’s letter of resignation and instead ordered a study of the working climate in the district office.
The ACSU board reached that decision after a lengthy executive session during which members discussed Willey’s letter, which she submitted this past Dec. 14. Willey had cited a sudden change in her duties — allegedly without her input — as the reason for her decision to step down this June after 14 years as associate superintendent.
FERRISBURGH — A successful fund-raising event hosted by Ferrisburgh residents Gary Lange and Martha Redpath benefited Midwives for Haiti, a nonprofit group working with Haitian authorities and other nonprofits to improve the chances of that nation’s mothers to have healthy childbirths.
Midwives for Haiti is the “featured cause of the month” at midwifesupplies.com for February, and has ramped up its efforts in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation, the poorest in the Western hemisphere.
MIDDLEBURY — With 6:35 to go in Saturday’s men’s basketball NESCAC quarterfinal at Middlebury College’s, No. 7 Trinity’s Brian Ford sank a long three-pointer with Panther senior guard Tim Edwards right in his face.
The Panthers, No. 2 in NESCAC with an 8-1 record and No. 6 in NCAA Division III at 22-2, were staring at a 49-44 deficit. The possibility loomed of the Panthers being upset by a 10-13 team they had beaten by 14 points eight days before.
Edwards, a senior captain, described the Panthers’ attitude when they fell five points behind.
Armando Vilaseca, Vermont’s Education Commissioner, delivered a sobering message to area school board members last Wednesday in a session that is meant, in part, to shock-and-awe his audience. The numbers tell most of the story, which is that budgets will either have to be cut again and again for the next two years or new revenues will have to be found.
