May Day
Batter up
Senator recounts efforts to strengthen Vermont’s unions and workforce
CVU baseball looks for redemption, other teams look to rebuild
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May 8, 2025
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Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
Parents invited to weigh in on school phone rules
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Climb up, Green Up
BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
A group composed largely of parents sat in the library at Champlain Valley Union High School the week before April break to discuss a topic currently on the table in both the Vermont legislature and the Champlain Valley School District: their children’s phones. Over the past few months, both the legislature and the school board have been discussing imposing a bell-to-bell phone policy in the district and across the state, meaning that from arrival to dismissal, children would be barred from using their personal electronic devices. At the beginning of the school year, superintendent Adam Bunting put together a working group to investigate what shape such a policy might take and research the impact of similar policies in other schools. In March, the school board’s policy committee presented a draft policy to the board and is now collecting feedback from the community. The panel inclued two students, senior See PHONE on page 16
COURTESY PHOTO
Phil Poeuch, D-Hinesburg, pictured above, helped organize a tire collection as part of Green Up Day this year. See story on page 8.
Charlotte residents pitch charter change at Statehouse LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Two Charlotte residents last month introduced a proposed town charter change that voters approved on Town Meeting Day, but the Legislature is unlikely to take up the measure this year.
The effort was spearheaded through a petition led by two Charlotte residents, Karen Frost and Mat Citarella, who began circulating the petition at the end of last year. The basis for the change was to allow Charlotte to exempt itself from a piece of housing legislation that was passed in 2022. The HOMES Act addressed several ways
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the state could encourage more housing by limiting some of the barriers that were present prior to the bill’s passage. One of those major changes was allowing the governing bodies of towns and cities — selectboards or See CHARTER CHANGE on page 12