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U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced on Tuesday, March 11, that 50% of the department’s workforce would be fired by March 21.
This workforce reduction coincides with cuts to the tune of over $1 billion in grant funding to teacher recruitment and training organizations, the Regional Education Laboratory program, Equity Assistance Centers and grants awarded under the Comprehensive Centers Program that provide “capacity-building” training to schools nationwide.
So far, federal funding to public school districts has not been cut. But some education advocates are raising alarm bells about the cuts and how they might impact local public school districts.
Region One, the administrative body that oversees public schools in Northwest Connecticut including Cornwall, Sharon, Salisbury, Falls Village, North Canaan and Kent, received just over $1.36 million in federal grant revenue for the 2024-’25 school year.
That represents 3.1% of the Region One budget, and funds programs like special education and healthcare for students that qualify for Medicare, Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick said.
“For students with disabilities we receive about $780,000 a year of the $1.36 million,” Herrick said. “So a little more than half of our federal money is related to special education.”
The remainder of the federal money funds student nutrition programs and remedial services, including funding a portion of those teachers’ salaries across the district.
As of Friday, March 14, Region One was going through budget talks under the assumption that federal funding will remain in place for those programs.
“We haven’t received any guidance from the State of Connecticut Department of Education or from the federal government,” Herrick said. “As we all see things are just happening pretty quickly, but there has not been any information forthcoming with what’s coming next.”
The story is largely the same across the New York border at the Webutuck School district. Federal funding supports programs for low-income students and families, students with disabilities, and universal pre-K to the tune of about $658,000 in the 2024-25 school year, representing a little over 2% of the revenue that Webutuck schools had available to them in this year’s budget.
That money is in addition to the money in the $27 million general fund that local voters approved last May, and Webutuck Business Administrator Robert Farrier says they factor it in to the operating budget of the district in specific ways.
“We use most of our Title funding for teacher salaries,” Farrier said. Grants for universal pre-K subsidize preschool teacher salaries at Webutuck schools, so Farrier only has to rely on the general fund for a small portion of preschool teacher salaries and the rest comes directly from federal grants.
“If we were to lose that, that’s where that impact would come,” Farrier said. “That $658,000 would have to be put back into the main budget, which would be obviously a big hurdle.”
Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias emphasized the cuts to the federal Department of Education workforce and grant programs will have uneven consequences, mostly affecting low-income students and students with disabilities and schools in poorer communities.
“These are the extra services that are all about giving everybody the same chance of being successful,” Dias said. “When we start to look at where these cuts are going to hit, it’s really the services and the support network we’re building for out students that struggle.”
She said school budgets don’t have a lot of extra wiggle room to accommodate sudden cuts to funding, and special education program already falls short of the established goals. Dias said schools are supposed to be reimbursed at 40% for special education expenses from federal grants, but in reality that reimbursement typically falls in the 14-17% range.
“Then you layer in that the state reimbursement is coming up, I believe, $137 million short in special education funds,” Dias said. “And all of those dollars, particularly in special education, are mandated dollars. Those are bills that have to be paid. When we talk about any net loss in resources, it’s going to impact what we’re able to do for children.”
Until there are more answers and clarity from the federal government, schools must persist and adapt to the ongoing uncertainties.
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Sweet start to spring at MapleFest
Mar 19, 2025
Theo Adkins, 7, and his dad, Craig Adkins of Lakeville, enjoy a sampling of maple syrup during Saturday’s MapleFest.
Ruth Epstein
SHARON — The atmosphere was steamy, yet sweet at the Sharon Audubon Center’s sugarhouse Saturday, March 15, during the annual MapleFest.
Each year at this time, as the days warm up, but nights stay cold, the sap from maple trees begins to flow. And each year Sharon Audubon offers guests a look into the process of converting the sap into the sweet-tasting syrup.
As she has for several decades, Wendy Miller, education program manager at the center, welcomes those who arrive at the sugarhouse. The visitors have already strolled down a path surrounded by maple trees to learn how they are tapped. When they get to the tiny building, where the evaporator is going full steam, Miller demonstrates the procedure and explains how sap is mainly water, containing only 3% sugar. To classify as maple syrup, it has to be 67% sugar.
The process is completed when the sap smells sweeter, is thicker and is a golden-brown bubble. She noted it has to reach a temperature of 219 degrees Fahrenheit.
Miller then displayed a hydrometer, which shows the level of sugar in the syrup and demonstrated how the product gets filtered to remove dirt and bugs. When the syrup is bottled, it needs to be between 185 and 190 degrees. Syrups, she said are graded by color.
While learning all about making maple syrup can be interesting, the best part of the tour for many comes at the end, when samples of the treat are offered. For Theo Adkins, 7, of Lakeville, this was the second time in a week he’d been at the sugarhouse. On Saturday he was there with his dad, Craig Adkins, and earlier in the week he’d been there on a school trip. He didn’t have to be coaxed to take a second sampling for a photo.
Wendy Miller, education program manager at Sharon Audubon Center, and intern Brandt Boscio, welcome guests to the sugarhouse during Saturday’s MapleFest.Ruth Epstein
Helping Miller this year with the program is Brandt Boscio, 17, who just graduated in January from Housatonic Valley Regional High School. He has been interested in making maple syrup since he was a freshman, when he began learning the process. “I love syrup for breakfast,” he said, which was a motivator. He produced two eight-ounce bottles his first year and in his sophomore year had 30 taps, building his own evaporator. Last year he had 80 taps, creating a small tubing system for more efficiency. But, Boscio said, finding private property owners to allow their trees to be tapped became a real challenge, so he wasn’t able to continue. His capstone project was about making and selling maple syrup, for which he was able to secure several grants.
David Moran, his vocational agriculture teacher, put him in touch with Miller, and he has been interning at the center with her.
Boscio said he’s gotten a lot of good experience and Miller said he’s been very helpful, “so it’s a win-win situation.” Boscio plans to attend college and study landscape management. He is a member of the Canaan Fire Company.
There was also a bake sale at the event where all the items were made with maple syrup.
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Housatonic Valley Regional High School is in Falls Village.
Nathan Miller
FALLS VILLAGE — Region One Superintendent Melony Brady-Shanley reported on the recently concluded school climate survey for Housatonic Valley Regional High School at the regular Region One Board of Education meeting Monday, March 3.
The survey was administered Jan. 15 to Jan. 31 and includes three distinct groups: parents, students and staff.
Brady-Shanley said the survey is required by state law. Any action that needs to be taken will be incorporated into the school’s improvement plan for next year.
She said 97% of staff members reported feeling physically safe at HVRHS often or always, but there was room for improvement in safety-related protocols and procedures and on training for emergencies, with 63% of staff members expressing satisfaction in those areas.
Staffers also indicated that professional development opportunities need to be more relevant.
Some 88% of parents give the school high marks for academics, but just 65% were content with the school’s ability to meet their children’s emotional and social development needs.
Parents were happy with the school communications (92%) but only 53% felt they had “opportunities to participate in school decision-making processes relevant to my child.”
A little under half (49%) of students agreed they enjoy coming to school, and 33% expressed enthusiasm for participating in class discussions.
There were also open-ended questions on the survey.
Brady-Shanley summarized areas for improvement by the responding group.
Staff do not like the “Not Yet Proficient” grading policy because it creates problems with time management and accountability for students. Staff would like professional development to be more focused on their subject areas, believe that communication between teachers and administrators could be better, and believe there is a lack of departmental meetings.
Parents want to see more challenging coursework, dedicated support for students not going to college, guidance from coaches on collegiate athletics, and possibly a School Resource Officer for additional security.
Students want more one-on-one support and personalized feedback from teachers and staff. They ask for clear communication on assignments, deadlines and grading policies, more rigor in Advanced Placement and Early College Experience classes and clear communications on assignments and tests.
In a response to a question from Region One board chair Pat Mechare, Brady-Shanley said that future meetings on how to implement improvements will include parents.
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Engineer George Johannesen leads a site visit through the bramble. The homes along Hospital Hill Road in Sharon are visible in the background.
Alec Linden
SHARON — A site visit and public hearing for a new housing development in downtown Sharon turned prickly in more ways than one as neighbors and residents showed up largely in protest of the project.
Late in the afternoon on March 12, George Johannesen, engineer with North Canaan-based Allied Engineering Associates Inc. and representative of the applicant Gold Dog LLC, led a group of about fifteen into the woods just below the Sharon Medical Arts building parking lot.
The group bushwhacked through heavy vines and thorny bramble, following Johannesen as he pointed out a group of orange-taped stakes spread across the cedar-dotted hillside, demarcating the dimensions of the proposed condominium buildings.
As the crowd slowly lost cohesion in the thick undergrowth, some expressed exasperation — not with the painful woodland stroll, but with Gold Dog LLC’s proposal.
“Homeowners not happy,” said 61 Hospital Hill Road resident Andrea Weyant with a rueful, pained smile. “They should take their ideas and bring them somewhere else,” she said of the developers. “And that’s putting it nicely.”
Silvina Leone parted from the main entourage to lead a smaller group straight down the hill to a point just behind her property at 71 Hospital Hill Road. She motioned to a stake indicating one corner of a building, sitting about ten feet from the mowed grass of her backyard, and then toward the side of her house where the entrance driveway to the complex is meant to be located. She noted it was conspicuous that Johannesen’s site visit didn’t mention the entrance, which she said was one of the more intrusive aspects of the plan, coming within feet of her home and necessitating the removal of a vacant home and stand of large spruce trees.
Leone explained that she already hangs curtains and blankets on the windows to block noise, light and sightlines into her home. “They’re nuking the value of my property,” she said bluntly.
Leone furthered her case at the public hearing that followed later in the evening at Town Hall. Reading a letter, which she said she would submit to the Planning and Zoning Commission, she explained how the pervasive ledge and gradient at the site make it a poor choice for development,.“Everybody loses except Mr. Palmer,” she said of Florien Palmer, the developer behind Gold Dog LLC.
Leone’s husband, Pablo Cisilino, offered an emotional appeal when he took the floor: “I beg you to stop it. I beg you to reconsider.”
Dobrila Waugh, whose family has owned 17 acres at the bottom of the hill for 75 years, has already seen the property face runoff damages from the large, paved areas of Sharon Hospital.
“Everyone is entitled to privacy and quiet enjoyment,” Waugh said, referencing a core tenant of real estate she had learned when working in the field years ago. This project, she posited, would radically upset that right.
Not everyone in attendance was against the development, though. Donna DiMartino, who is a member of several town boards, said she understood the concerns with the development but that the town needs more housing options. “We need to have houses like duplexes where people who are not millionaires can live,” she argued.
P&Z alternate Jill Drew asked whether the new condominiums — 24 units, each a duplex — would be designated affordable.
Johannesen said it is not an affordable housing development — “It’s for people who can afford to buy a single-family home and work in town.”
Resident Carol Flaton stated in a written comment that she is “keenly interested in a prudent path of growth for the town,” and that the development seems like “exactly what Sharon needs.”
After concluding public comment, P&Z decided to keep the hearing open as new information may be submitted in the coming weeks.
The public hearing will resume at the April 9 P&Z meeting.
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