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SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
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Welcome to ‘The Wildcat Way’
Williston Central sets new expectations for school community BY JASON STARR Observer staff
Williston Central School was in need of a reset for the new school year — a cultural reframing to put the pandemic in the past and set new expectations for the coming years. A committee of educators brainstormed through the summer ways to replace the grade 3-8 school’s longtime mantra — Be SMART (Safe, Mindful, Accepting, Respectful and Truthful) — with something new. The result is “The Wildcat Way.” During these early days of the new school year, The Wildcat Way is being introduced in classrooms, with teachers and students discussing how they will follow its three tenets: “take care of yourself; take care of others; take care of this place.” “All of our expectations flow from
The Ashley children (l tor), Hannah (3), Rowan (9) and Spencer (7), enjoy themselves at the ice cream social organized by the Williston Families as Partners (FAP) on Monday evening at Williston Central School. For more photos of the event see page 24.
those three things,” said Principal Jackie Parks. Both the old and new mantras are based on a student behavior management framework used in public schools throughout Vermont called “positive behavior interventions and supports” (PBIS). Park said the framework took a backseat during the Covid years as the school community navigated remote learning and social distancing. When students returned to regular schooling last year, there was a notable difference. “We very quickly, and this is nationally, found there was a lot of changes in students,” Parks said. “They had lost up to two years of how to interact socially, how to be together in groups, how to negotiate conflict, because we were all at home and so isolated. “We really have found that students are presenting very differently in terms of their needs and where we need to start with them.” A committee of Allen Brook and Williston Central educators that meets
OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
see WILDCATS page 7
ment of Housing and Urban Development, “affordable” means that a household pays no more than 30 percent of its income on housing costs, including mortgage, property taxes, homeowners association fees and insurance. For renters, costs include rent and utilities (heat, hot water, trash removal and electricity). The current median income in the Burlington area for a family of four is $113,000, according to Williston Planning and Zoning Director Matt Boulanger. The price of a home that is affordable at that income is
$361,000, he said. Under the planning commission’s proposal, a housing developer would be required to keep 15 percent of the homes in a new neighborhood priced at or below that amount — or keep 10 percent of the homes affordable for households with an income that is 80 percent of the area’s median income. If they follow this requirement, the project would be exempt from the caps on new home construction that are part of the town’s see ZONE page 5
Planners forward ‘inclusionary zoning’
New regs would require affordable housing BY JASON STARR Observer staff
The Williston Planning Commission proposes a transition from incentives to requirements as a way to make more homes more affordable to more people. Last week, the selectboard scheduled a public hearing on the commission’s “inclusionary zoning” amendments to the town’s
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land use regulations. The hearing is set for Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall. The commission will host an informational session on the proposal Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. Both meetings will have options to participate online. The proposal would require housing developers to cap the cost of a percentage of homes in a new neighborhood as perpetually affordable for people with incomes at or below the Burlington area’s median income. Following national standards of affordability laid out by the U.S. Depart-
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