Principal's Breakfast Social

Principal's Breakfast Social at Ripton Elementary School, Thursday March 18th, 8am-9am

Community members and parents are invited to come and enjoy coffee, tea, and breakfast treats in the Ripton Elementary School library. This is an opportunity to meet, socialize, and connect with Principal Marta Beede.

Questions? Call Board member Connie Trudeau 388-0860 or Administrative Assistant Wendy Leeds 388-2208

Concert in the Community House on Friday

The Ripton Community House will host a concert this Friday night. "Bach to Rock" is a benefit for the Trinity Yard School in Ghana.

Date: Friday, March 5, 2010 Time: 6:00pm - 10:00pm Where: Ripton Community House
A variety of musicians will be performing, including
-Auh2O
-Tim
Woos
-Engine # 5
-Isabel Lower
-The Mockingbirds
-and more!

Tickets are 5$ and can be purchased at the Vermont Bookstore and Bristol
Cliffs Music. Raffle tickets for great prizes will be available at the event,
along with homemade clay oven pizza, baked goods etc.

There's also a Facebook page.

Town meeting tonight

Don't forget to attend tonight's town meeting, friends!

Ripton resident Bill McKibben has a new article in the Washington Post, "Washington's snowstorms, brought to you by global warming". It's about climate change in the world, but also tied to our community's experience. For instance,

The cross-country ski race I've been training for, set for today high in the Green Mountains: cancelled, lack of snow...

Here in the mountains of the Northeast, for instance, lakes freeze later than they used to, and sometimes not at all: Lake Champlain remained open in winter only three times during the 19th century, but it did so 18 times between 1970 and 2007.

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Ripton school budget might be cut: Addison Independent

The Ripton School's budget might be cut, according to the Addison Independent.

From a general survey of Vermont school budget problems:

Ripton school directors are proposing a 3.29-percent decrease in 2010-2011
spending, with a $780,699 spending plan to serve a student body pegged at around
43 students next year. That enrollment figure would be down four students from
this year.

School officials pared a paraprofessional position from the
staff to help lower the spending plan. In spite of those efforts, Ripton’s K-12
education property tax rate is expected to rise by 5.13 percent, due largely to
a drop in the CLA and declining enrollment.

Return of Ripton energy efficiency

Ripton's energy efficiency initiative continues:

Round 2 of the Efficiency Vermont's Vermont Community Energy Mobilization Project will start in February. Ripton will be a player once again. Ripton residents who missed out on home energy visits in 2009 can take advantage of the opportunity by contacting Warren at 388-4082 or kinglet at together dot net to schedule a visit. Visits are free. They take up to two hours and involve installing free compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving equipment, conducting a walk-through energy assessment, and providing information about the advantages of a comprehensive energy retrofit.

If you would like to help conduct home visits you'll need to attend the Efficiency Vermont training on Saturday, January 23rd, from 9 to noon at Middlebury's Ilsley Library downstairs meeting room.

Bonus:

You'll get a free breakfast if you come at 8:30.

(tip and content: Warren King)

School Budget Hearing

Ripton Elementary School budget hearing, 7pm, Monday January 18, 2010 at the Ripton Elementary School. The School Board welcomes your input on the proposed 2010-2011 school budget.