Top Stories for Tuesday November 4, 2008

Addison Northwest Supervisory Union Salutes Its 2008 Teachers of the Year

    Every year the University of Vermont offers school districts the opportunity to honor their teachers by selecting Teachers of the Year and in 2008 two teachers from the Addison Northwest Supervisory Union district that includes Addison, Vergennes, Ferriburgh and Panton were selected. They are Alison DaBica from Addison Elementary and Cookie Steponaitis from Vergennes Union High School. Both educators knew from an early age that they wanted to teach and credit other educators in their own lives for instilling in them the passion for teaching.
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Saint Mary’s Celebrates 10th Anniversary… Reopened in 1998, Catholic Elementary School Serves Families of Addison County For
By Mike Cameron
    To begin to understand what Saint Mary’s Catholic Elementary School means to its students, a quick browse of their web site will provide some convincing prose.
    Writing for their 6th grade graduating class, students at Saint Mary’s called the school, “spectacular.”  They went on to explain that they “had formed lasting relationships with others,” during their time there.  That the school, “provided a great education, demonstrated a respectful environment and allowed us to build relationships.”
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Author Of The “Big Box Swindle” Makes Case For Towns To Keep Out Major Chain Retailers
By Ed Barna
    It’s a pretty safe bet that Stacy Mitchell’s latest book hasn’t sold a lot of copies in Wal-Mart.
    A researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), Mitchell had previously authored “Hometown Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores and Why it Matters” in 2000, and co-authored “Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments” with Mark Roseland  2005. Last Wednesday, she was at Middlebury College, speaking on the subject of her November, 2006 book “Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses.”
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Around And About Addison County-Ripton
By M. Stuart Parks
The town of Ripton sits at a height of 1,778 feet above sea level and is nestled in the heart of the Green Mountain National Forest.  With the exception of Mt. Abraham in Bristol at 4,052 feet high, Ripton has the highest mountains in the county:  Robert Frost Mt. at 2,513 feet, Bread Loaf Mt. at 3,823 feet, Mt. Wilson at 3,756 feet, Mt. Roosevelt at 3,580 feet and Battell Mt. at 3,471 feet.    [ more ]