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Board’s treatment of McHenry unfair
South Burlington library gives members a pass
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the AUGUST 10, 2023
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VOLUME 47, NO. 32
SB school board will hold vote on chair’s ouster
Keep on truckin’
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
South Burlington school board members will vote to remove Alex McHenry as the board’s chair at their next meeting, setting up a possible reshuffling of board leadership as complaints over McHenry’s effectiveness bubble to the surface. The often tense, two-hour discussion at the Aug. 2 meeting centered on McHenry’s six-month
tenure as board chair and ended with a 3-2 vote to take a vote of no confidence at the start of the board’s Aug. 16 meeting. School director Kate Bailey forced the issue at a recent meeting where several members complained of a lack of clear and timely communication — between board members, with other governing bodies and the public — as well See SCHOOL BOARD on page 12
Sam Morril takes the stage
Comedian hopes to break bad luck streak in Vermont COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
COURTESY PHOTO
The Green Mountain Athletic Association gave Evan Pidgeon of South Burlington High School’s Class of 2023 a $1,000 scholarship. More on page 10.
Sam Morril, admittedly, hasn’t had the best luck in Vermont. Last time he tried to get here he missed his flight and had to cancel his gig at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, and in 2019, he had wrapped up his show at the club and he and some other local comics were out at Vermont Pub & Brewery when he had a pint glass broken over his head. It’s a story he’s recounted on podcasts and from clips in his standup routine: Standing at the bar, a clearly drunk man approached him and asked cryptically whether he was with the University of Vermont, before saying he was going to “beat the sh*t” out of him. Morril ignored him and turned
around when the man proceeded to smash his glass into his head. He was fine, and the guy was later arrested by Burlington police. It was a horrible incident that no sane person would want any part of. But for a stand-up comic, it was material — the type of stuff from which you make your living. He ended up riffing on the incident during his shows the following evening. “That’s kind of the goal — is when bad things happen you have the ability to turn them into a funny story,” he said. “The pressure is on to make it funny otherwise you just had a bad thing happen to you. At the very least you try to take your irritability and turn it into a See MORRIL on page 11