Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Champlain Valley School District announced Saturday evening that they have hired an educator from South Bend, Indiana, as their next superintendent. Rene Sanchez will take over from the retiring Elaine Pinckney. Pinckney has led what is now the state's largest school district for 15 years.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Student Assistance Corp is offering a free online webinar on how to appeal your financial aid offer, April 27 at 6 p.m. Students and families can participate via Zoom or by visiting VSAC’s Facebook page. The event also will be recorded and available for viewing later.

by Alexandra Clauss Running a business is not for the faint of heart. Startups are often faced with too much to do and too little time, but it is a mistake for your organization’s human resources strategy to be an afterthought. All businesses, regardless of size, must be proactive in complying with state and federal employment laws. This area of the law has evolved rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as remote and hybrid work arrangements continue and will possibly become the new normal, businesses must invest time to stay apprised of the latest changes in state and federal employment laws and regulations.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott announced Saturday evening that he will allow H315 to become law without his signature. While the bill includes several important measures related to economic recovery from the pandemic, it also includes several points the governor said he cannot support. For instance, both for-profit and nonprofit organizations opposed the last-second inclusion of taxing Paycheck Protection Program grants as taxable income in next year's (2021) tax return.

Leonine Public Affairs The Senate Appropriations committee spent the week working through H.439, the FY2022 state budget bill. At the beginning of the week the committee had a goal of finalizing the budget and sending it to the Senate floor by April 20. By the end of the week the committee’s target for approving H.439 was pushed back to April 23. This is in part because the committee needs to determine how to allocate the $1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and in part because the budget process is more decentralized than previous years.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Independent Media has announced that its community newspaper, The Commons, won 10 prizes in the New England Newspaper & Press Association’s 2021 Better Newspaper Competition, in divisions for weekly newspapers with circulation greater than 6,000. The Commons is based in Brattleboro.

The awards for the newspaper, which covers Brattleboro and the surrounding towns and villages in Windham County, Vermont, included one first prize for Spot News Story for Randolph T. Holhut and Olga Peters, “Cash-strapped Retreat pursues shutdown after rebuke by state agency.”

The category awards exceptional work on stories that are unplanned, like this report, where Holhut and Peters broke down a temporary — but public and escalating — conflict between the Vermont Department of Public Health and the Brattleboro Retreat, a psychiatric hospital providing essential services to the state of Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Ski + Ride Magazine has won the top award from the New England Newspaper and Press Association, General Excellence, for specialty publications. The awards were announced at the organization’s annual meeting last Friday. It is the second year in a row the publication has won. Vermont Ski + Ride was also named the Best Niche Publication in New England by the group, which represents more than 340 newspapers and media outlets in New England’s six states.

Vermont Business Magazine AO Glass announces its first line of products for the Wedding, Beverage, Real Estate, and Corporate Industries. AO Glass has grown to a team of 20 with greatly increased capacity, anchoring the creative economy in the South End Arts District in Burlington. Building upon the success of our contract lighting business, AO Glass is launching a new line of organizational gifts and products directed to serving other Vermont, and National, entities.

Vermont Business Magazine Kinney Pike Insurance has been named Vermont’s 2020 Diamond Achiever by Patriot Insurance Company. The annual award is presented to the highest performing agency based on set criteria including length of appointment, profitability, growth, and policy retention. Each year, the top Patriot Insurance Company agencies receive the “Diamond Achiever” award in recognition of their outstanding accomplishment.

Public Assets Institute Despite a dramatic drop in unemployment in recent months, the number of Vermont residents who are working has not increased. The number of people officially unemployed—available and looking for work—fell since last April because workers left the labor force, not because they returned to work. In March 2021, 30,000 fewer Vermonters were employed compared with the same month in 2020, before the full COVID shutdown—a 9 percent drop.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Scott announced today that Vermonters who are age 16, 17 and 18 can now make appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine starting tomorrow (Saturday, April 17) at 10 am. All other 16 and older Vermonters can start signing up as early as 6 am on Monday. Scott does not believe the suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for another week will hold up the state's overall vaccination schedule. But those Vermonters who had made a J&J appointment will have to reschedule. Also, the Vermont Department of Health is reporting 141 new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths for a statewide total of 242. And the governor extended the State of Emergency until May 15. This is expected to last until at least the summer, as Scott extends it month-to-month.

Vermont Business Magazine This week, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) Animal Health section was notified that a horse in Alburgh exhibiting neurologic abnormalities tested positive for Equine Herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), resulting in a case of Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM). The horse in question is currently under quarantine while the Agency monitors and manages the case with the attending veterinarian.