Fair Haven schools look ahead
FAIR HAVEN—Girls’ and Boys’ Club activities are opening to Fair Haven Grade School students in the fall. Grant-funded, the club will be free to students from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., including Power Hour academic time, an activity, light dinner, and pick-up by parents.
Director of Student Services Pat Davenport applied for and received a grant from the Hess Toy Truck company. The company has worked with Baylor University to develop a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program with learning kits. The school is receiving 10 trucks and a curriculum.
Grade 4 teachers Jenn Chapdelaine and Jaclyn Countryman told the board their students had been nervous about taking the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) tests. They realized they need better keyboarding skills and are starting to appreciate the Minds Up curriculum.
English Language Arts students have been studying weather, setting, and report writing. Fourth-quarter classes study the earth and sky in nonfiction and fiction stories and will prepare a PowerPoint presentation on a constellation.
Grade 5 teachers plan studies on area, standard algorithms, and division. They plan that students entering grade 6 will be proficient in fractions.
The school will celebrate its Centennial the first week of May. Activities include an assembly with pictures and videos, a no-technology day, a day of dressing “of the times,” welcoming retirees and former Board members, and a final day of tree planting, cake, and burying a time capsule.
The end of the year is approaching swiftly. Eighth grade graduation is June 15, with the last student day on June 16 and the last teacher day on June 23, according to announcements made at the town School Board meeting Apr. 6.
The board voted to hold an Act 46 revote, May 9. Approval requires 147 voters to say yes.
Poultney in search of a local bank
POULTNEY—With the closing of Citizens Bank in Poultney, the town is looking for another financial institution to take its place. The nearest banks are in Castleton and Granville, N.Y. The 597 students at Green Mountain College as well as the individuals and businesses in the 1,555-resident community rely on having a bank in town, especially a bank that they can walk to, said Jennifer Miller, president of the Poultney Area Chamber of Commerce.
A bank within walking distance is invaluable, too, to local business owners who can make a quick trip to the bank during the day and are thereby able to stay open past 5 p.m. Customers who leave Poultney to do their banking elsewhere are likely to do other shopping there too, former Town Manager Jonas Rosenthal said.
Miller noted that town officials have been talking to representatives of both TD Bank and New York-based Great Meadows Credit Union.
Multiple drug intoxication caused death
POULTNEY—Alexandra Kay Rooker, 26, died from intoxication by a combination of morphine, hydromorphone, and methamphetamine, according to the final death certificate state police released April 20. Dr. Steven Shapiro, Vermont’s chief medical examiner, ruled the death accidental and that the exact date remains unknown.
Apparently last seen by friends March 2, Rooker was reported missing March 8. Her body was found March 15 in an outbuilding, wrapped in a tarp, at 1953 Morse Hollow Road, Poultney, the residence of Wayne Oddo.
Hers was the second body found on Oddo’s property. Frederick J. Weitzman. 54, died there in September, of “hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease” with a contributing factor of “acute heroin intoxication; acute and chronic alcohol use.”
Oddo is not charged with either death, but he has hosted out-of-state drug dealers at his house in exchange for heroin.
Former Poultney town manager interim in Fair Haven
FAIR HAVEN—With Herb Durfee’s leaving Fair Haven April 21 to take over the town managership of Norwich, Jonas Rosenthal, recently retired town manager in Poultney, is filling in until a permanent manager can be selected. Rosenthal said he is willing to help with the search, working 20 to 24 hours a week, more if necessary.
His contract with the town is for three months, a stint that may extend to four or five but likely not six, Rosenthal predicted. He has already been to several board meetings and spent time in the office to learn the issues. He complimented Durfee on his level of organization.
Rosenthal has also met with contractors about water and sewer projects in Fair Haven. He already knew most of them through his 31-year position in Poultney, the longest serving town manager in the state.
