Williston
ECRWSS PRSRT STD US Postage
PAID
Permit #15 Williston,VT 05495 POSTAL CUSTOMER
AUGUST 27, 2026
St. George roundabout plans unveiled
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Onward and upward
BY JASON STARR Observer staff
The Vermont Agency of Transportation presented designs Tuesday in a public hearing for the reconstruction of the intersection of Route 2A and Route 116 in St. George. The roads currently come together at about a 45-degree angle roughly a mile south of St. George center. The agency considers it a dangerous intersection with failing level of service. In its place, and using $6 million in federal appropriations through the U.S. Department of Transportation, the state plans to remove the traffic lights and construct a three-pronged roundabout. The St. George Selectboard approved the concept in 2023. The intersection is about 6 miles south of Taft Corners in Williston. “It’s designed to lower speeds and help calm traffic,” said Thomas Bigelow, an engineer with McFarland Johnson, which contracted with VTrans to design the roundabout. Bigelow was among a group of engineers who presented plans to the public Tuesday during an evening meeting at St. George Town Hall. The meeting was a required step
School regionalization commences under Act 170 BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Students arriving at Williston Central School for first day of school on Wednesday were welcomed by folks on the sidewalk as they disembarked from the school bus. More pictures on Page 24. OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
Filion to step down as ABS principal OBSERVER STAFF REPORT
Principal Angela Filion plans to leave Allen Brook School at some point during this school year to take over as interim director of student and community engagement for the Champlain Valley School District. The district announced the move earlier this month. Filion has been the principal at the Williston elementary school for eight years. It’s unclear when the transition will see ROUNDABOUT page 5 take place. The district is planning to hire an interim principal for ABS. “Angela will remain fully focused on opening school at ABS and supporting the community through a strong start to the year,” the district said in its announcement. In her new role, Filion will lead CVSD’s student and community engagement team, promoting “belonging, equity, inclusion, restorative justice and student-centered practice,” the announcement says. VTrans plans show a roundabout at the “I have found myself increasingly intersection of Routes 2A and 116 in St. drawn to the opportunity to contribute to George. COURTESY OF VTRANS our district’s work through a student and
Angela Filion
community engagement lens, with equity at the center,” Filion said. “What matters most to me as an educator and leader lives in this work: belonging, relationships, student and family voice, joy, engagement and creating schools where every child feels known, valued and able to thrive.”
The Champlain Valley School District is no stranger to consolidation. About a decade ago, the communities of Williston, St. George, Shelburne, Charlotte and Hinesburg took advantage of state incentives under Act 46 to bring its seven separate school boards under one umbrella. The resulting 12-member Champlain Valley School Board governs a single school district of six schools and about 3,700 students. But the issues the merger was designed to address — increasing education costs, decreasing student population and equity of access to educational resources — have not abated. And this year, the Legislature passed Act 170 to put school districts statewide on a path of further consolidation. “We are moving down a continuum from voluntary consolidation to less voluntary consolation,” said Champlain Valley School District Superintendent Adam Bunting. As required by the law, Bunting helped found a “cooperative education service area” (CESA) over the summer with public school administrators from Addison County and Mount Mansfield Unified Union School District in Jericho. They are “asset mapping” across their districts, Bunting said, to investigate ways to combine efforts to reduce costs. Areas of focus are special education, transportation, curriculum, facilities and professional development. School board chair Megan Metzler described the areas as “back office operations — how you run your finances, payroll, those types of things. There are a lot of examples of that in different industries … I call it a
Buy One, Get One Dinners Fry Baskets & HOt Plates - Fri, sat, sun at 5:00 Pm
sOutHern-insPireD Diner ClassiCs - BreakFast, lunCH, Dinner
189 Bank Street, Burlington • 802-497-1668 • burlsdowntown.com
see ACT 170 page 5