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Title hunt
Noted guitarist holds concert at Champlain Valley Union
CVU fall sports season gets underway
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Volume 51 Number 37
shelburnenews.com
September 15, 2022
Thousands will soon lose rental, utility help
Golden sunset
AARON CALVIN STAFF WRITER
bit more so than an adult can,” Jabour said. “With the way an adult acts and receives, if it’s disrespectful or they use inappropriate language, then they’ve been living with that for a number of years. So, 30, 40, however old you are, it’s harder to break that pattern.” Ricky McCollum, the activities director at Champlain Valley Union High School, the largest school in the state and arguably home to the largest trophy collection, put it bluntly. “Taunting is bully-like behavior,” McCollum said. “I tell students we don’t need to antagonize or bully, because we are better than that.” A new rule implemented by the VPA this year requires someone from the host school
The Vermont Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or VERAP, doled out over $130 million across the state in emergency assistance for those struggling to pay rent and utilities since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but now that program is winding down. In October and November, the Vermont State Housing Authority will begin gradual reductions to the program that has allowed 12,613 households to “remain stably housed during an unprecedented public health emergency.” Rental assistance will continue until the funds are fully depleted at an unspecified, yet likely imminent, date. Utility assistance stops at year’s end. Rather than send renters to a financial cliff, winding the program down gradually was determined to be the best way to help them plan for the future. According to the authority’s website, the program was a “short-term initiative, funded by an award from U.S. Treasury.” Under initial guidance from Treasury, the authority projected the funds would last through 2023, but new guidance issued in March “dramatically upended” that timeline and required the program to spend the money faster. Though the federal COVID-19 cash flow that kept people in their homes is shutting off, the data collected by the authority will provide a clear picture of Vermont’s housing issue that some housing policy advocates have long attempted to draw attention to. “This program really brought to the forefront what I think some of us advocates have been saying for a while, that the homeless and housing challenge is bigger than we’re really recognizing,” Caprice Hover, the housing authority’s VERAP coordinator, said.
See SPORTS on page 12
See VERAP on page 13
Ella Trevithick, 13, of Shelburne, took this photo of the sky between storms on a recent night.
Good sports
Vermont Principals Association adopts zero tolerance on bad fan behavior TOMMY GARDNER STAFF WRITER
Players aren’t the only ones who can get ejected from sporting events this year. That’s the message from the Vermont Principals Association, which oversees varsity sports in Vermont, following a year that saw numerous acts of bad sportsmanship and ugly fan behavior — racial epithets, transphobic comments, body shaming and general harassment of all kinds. Lauren Thomas, the VPA’s assistant executive director, said it can be easy to forget that a sporting event isn’t just a game at the youth levels, but, in a way, an extension of the classroom. And one doesn’t expect an unruly fan to simply walk into a classroom and talk trash
while kids are figuring out algebra equations, working on a sculpture or memorizing state capitals. High school sports venues ought to provide the same levels of protection for the students, Thomas said. “You learn so many good skills on the field, and we don’t want the kids to be subject to bullying and harassment,” she said. “As adults, we need to model the type of behavior that we want our kids to show.” South Burlington’s director of activities, Mike Jabour, said it’s far easier to “redirect” a student who acts up at a game, whether through disciplinary actions or old-fashioned teachable moments. For adults, it often takes another adult to step in. “Students can check themselves a little