Food for thought
Evermore?
Governor Phil Scott’s plan to cut universal school meals meets pushback
A look at ravens, the intrepid foragers in Vermont winters
Page 7
Page 11
February 27, 2025
POSTAL CUSTOMER
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #217 CONCORD, NH ECRWSSEDDM
Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
thecitizenvt.com
Confused about the school budget? Ask these teens about it BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY BRIANA BRADY
Hinesburg ecology enthusiast Bob Hyams takes a trek through Geprags Community Park, where the beavers have been busy.
Busy beavers play outsize role in cleaning up waterways in Hinesburg and Vermont BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
For the last few years, a family of beavers has made a home in Geprags Community Park in Hinesburg, and they’ve been renovating. A pond has sprung up behind their dam. Plant life has flourished. Fish have returned. And, according to Bob Hyams, a Hinesburg resident and owner of Riverscape Ecology, the surrounding wetland is now abating phosphorous at a rate higher than some human interventions. The positive impact of the beavers at Geprags that Hyams has observed complements grow-
ing scientific knowledge about how beavers can help reconnect floodplains, abate phosphorous and ultimately revitalize the ecology of struggling wetlands. During a presentation to Vermont legislators this month, Hyams put forth a proposition: the state should start paying landowners to manage beavers on their land. Vermont has known about the excess phosphorous in the Lake Champlain watershed for years. As a necessary nutrient for plants, phosphorous is common in agricultural fertilizer. In an agricultural state like Vermont, that has meant phosphorous runoff from agricultural operations into the water
system. However, although it helps plant growth, when in excess in waterways, phosphorous can cause water quality issues related to algae. The state has been trying to address the phosphorous levels for years. Back in 2002, they established a plan to try to reduce the levels. However, when the EPA assessed Vermont’s plans in 2011, they mandated that the state take even greater measures, setting a timeline for the state to start in 2016. “And the U.S. EPA says, Vermont, you got clean up Lake See BEAVERS on page 13
Many people, if you asked them, probably couldn’t give a detailed explanation of how their school district’s budget works. School funding in Vermont is complicated. There’s a multi-step journey between a local school board setting a funding target, a superintendent putting together a budget proposal, calculating state-level tax assessment and student weighting and then voting on all that. It’s difficult to even write a sentence about. Not for Zoe Epstein. A junior at Champlain Valley Union High School, Epstein has spearheaded an effort with six other students to learn the ins and outs of their district’s budget. After learning about it themselves, they’ve worked to explain it to their peers. Over the last month or so, the group has reached every member of the firstyear and senior classes as well as a few groups of sophomores and juniors. Their goal? Make sure their peers understand the budget and feel empowered to participate. Epstein, in her second year as a student representative to the school board, first had the idea in December after she sat through a
New Location! Near City Hall & Public Library!
OPENS MARCH 6
AVAILABLE FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH OR DINNER
DINE-IN / TAKE OUT / ONLINE ORDERING
budget presentation at a meeting. “I went home, and I was like, students need to be a part of this conversation,” Epstein said. When she thought about what form that would take, Epstein was inspired by a discussion format she’d participated in at school. For the last few years, CVU has been teaching its students through the Harkness Method, a style of classroom discussion that promotes student led discourse as the center point of learning. Brad Miller, the social studies teacher leading the effort to integrate the Harkness Method at the school, was the first person Epstein talked to about running information sessions for students. “What can we do to mimic a conversation about a book in an English class, but about the budget material? How can we have that same conversation about something that is not literature?” Epstein said she asked Miller. After Epstein met with Miller and school principal Katherine Riley, superintendent Adam Bunting went to the student council, asking if students might be interested in joining Epstein on a budget working group. Six students answered the call: senior Patterson Frazier, juniors Jack See BUDGET on page 12
Shelburne Road & Open Soon! Market Street, S. Burlington Maple Tree Place, Williston
GetBlissBee.com @getblissbee