Williston Observer

Nov. 20, 2008

Former CVU stars making marks at college level

➢    Middlebury College moved into the NCAA Division III national soccer tournament with victories over Framingham State and Norwich University this past weekend in regional action at Middlebury, helped by former Champlain Valley Union High stars Tyler Macnee and Carson Cornbrooks.

The Panthers will meet Carleton College of Minnesota at 5 p.m. on Saturday in Hoboken, N.J. A victory would propel them into a title game Sunday against either Stevens Institute of Technology of New Jersey or Johns Hopkins University for a berth in the division’s final four.

Macnee and Cornbrooks each had scoring chances turned away in regulation of Saturday’s win over Framingham, which was decided by a 4-1 Middlebury advantage in a shootout. On Sunday, the Panthers nipped Norwich 1-0 to earn the trip to New Jersey.

➢    Micah Rose, a co-captain with Macnee on the 2007 CVU Division 1 championship team, has been a starting midfielder at Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College (15-2-2), and was also in action in Division III regional tournament play last weekend.

➢    Former CVU girls soccer star Meg Howard was the top goal scorer with five for St. Lawrence University. Howard, a junior, also had six assists while leading the Larries to a Liberty League tournament berth. She was named to the league’s All-Academic team.

➢     Ben Von Reyn had the best scoring average (75.5) on the St. Lawrence University golf team this past fall and earned a spot on the league’s All-Star First Team, along with academic honors.

➢     The Ithaca College Bombers finished second at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championship for the second year in a row, helped by CVU graduate Melanie McCormick, a junior. McCormick placed sixth, with a time of 19:27.

Basketballs bouncing at CVU

Tryouts for the boys and girls basketball teams opened Monday with varsity and junior varsity positions likely to be assigned by Thursday.

The two varsity teams have scrimmages scheduled at home Saturday, with Hartford High coming north for the sessions. The girls teams will play at 9 a.m. and the boys at 11 a.m.

Rec League basketball registration

Registration is open for the Williston Recreation Basketball League. The league runs from December to February. Register through Williston Town Clerk, 878-5121. Coaches are needed. For more information e-mail Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Finnegan at [email protected]

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Nov. 20, 2008
By Mal Boright
Observer correspondent

The first quick impression during an after school meeting with Champlain Valley Union High cross country competitor Tony Sulva is that a runner and his track shoes are never far apart.

Even though CVU’s cross country season ended at the New Englands in Manchester, N.H. on Nov. 8, Sulva had his shoes in hand and would be running following an interview with the Observer.

Next up for the lean (aren’t they all) five-kilometer specialist is the indoor track season at the University of Vermont facilities.

Sulva, a senior, is coming off his best campaign for the Redhawks — his accomplishments featured a slew of second place finishes, including the district meet in Swanton where he turned in a career-best time, and the state meet in Thetford.

“Tony is the best male runner I have ever coached,” said veteran CVU cross country mentor Scott Bliss. “He is also one of the most respected runners by his peers.”

Speaking of peers, the season was a series of chases involving Sulva, Mount Mansfield Union’s Adron Pitman and David Sinclair of Green Mountain Valley School, who entered the meets as an individual.

In the districts at Missisquoi Valley Union High, Sulva burned the course in 16 minutes and 18 seconds, his personal best. Pitmon just beat him, with a meet record time some 11 seconds better.

The two got together the following week in the hilly course at Thetford, with the state title at stake. This time, Sulva got past Pitmon late in the race but finished second to Sinclair, despite a late charge that caused some anxious moments for the victor.

“I had beaten David three times during the season, but he had a good day,” said Sulva. “Everybody peaks on a particular day and that was his.”

While Sinclair captured a well-deserved individual win, Sulva earned first place among the teams in the competition and that was perfectly all right with Bliss.

“He (Sulva) wanted to do what was best for the team and he did it. He was first among all the teams,” the coach said glowingly.

And the team aspect of what some consider an individual sport is all important to Sulva.

“We have seven runners, of whom five score,” he said. “When one has a problem, we all have to come together to make it up.”

Sulva recalled that at the state meet, one of CVU’s leading runners fell and finished last, but the team was still able to take second place, losing first by just three points to Essex High.

He also noted that team members can be helpful in motivating each other during pre-race preparations.

At the New Englands, against the best of the region, Sulva and Pitmon waged another of their duels while finishing in the 30’s in the huge field.

“I passed him with 800 meters to go, but he then got back and beat me by eight-tenths of a second,” Sulva recalled.

Pitmon finished 37th and Sulva 39th.

Sulva said the other New England states have many more good competitors than can be found in the smaller population of the Green Mountain State.

It has been a four-year haul for the senior harrier, who said when he began running his freshman year, his fastest time was 20:40.

“My first year I trained hard to get past that,” he said, noting an increasingly better work ethic helped him lower his times to 17:20 by the end of the season.

“I was breaking some ground and that really motivated me,” he said with a smile.

By the end of his sophomore year, Sulva was running just below 17 minutes.

The further down you go, the harder it gets, he pointed out.

Where will he run next fall?

Sulva said he has applied to several colleges but has not yet made a decision. He would like to get an athletic scholarship, but if that does not happen he will try out as a walk-on for what would then be a fortunate cross country program.

So how often does he run?

“Every day,” was the quick answer.

Even in the rain and mud, which, he says, is not that bad.

It’s the running that’s important.

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Nov. 20, 2008

Schools deal with first snowy commute of season

A burst of heavy snow Tuesday morning created the season’s first headaches for commuters across the region, including in Williston. The mix of snow and icy roads during rush hour traffic caused numerous accidents.

The snow also hit at the exact moment when school buses headed out to pick up students.

District Principal Walter Nardelli said a bus was rear-ended at the bottom of French Hill on Route 2. The bus, on one of its first stops of the morning, had stopped to pick up students when it was involved in the minor accident. A car traveling behind the bus slid into it and caused “very minor” damage to the bus’ bumper, Nardelli said.

As a precaution, another bus was sent down French Hill to the accident scene, where it picked up the stranded students and other students along the route who had yet to be picked up. Nardelli said there were no injuries and he expected the bus to return to its route on Wednesday morning.

Many students arrived late to school due to the weather. Traffic was at a standstill in Williston Village and on Oak Hill Road because of accidents. The last bus arrived at Williston Central School at 8:22 a.m., more than 20 minutes later than normal, Nardelli said.

Configuration forum

The Williston School Board is sponsoring a community forum to discuss school configuration options on Nov. 24. The meeting will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Williston Central School cafeteria.

The forum is meant to provide families and community members a chance to share their ideas of what’s important about configuration.

For more information about the options up for discussion, go online to www.wsdvt.org, click “Conceptual Frameworks Committee,” “Notes and updates from the meetings” and “General Configuration Options.”

A second community forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 12.

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Nov. 20, 2008
By Tim Simard
Observer staff

Parents and school officials agree on the importance of clearly communicating concise and correct information within the Williston School District. But the Williston School Board and the Conceptual Frameworks Committee have also determined that communication must improve.

At last Wednesday’s School Board meeting, members of the Frameworks Committee — a group charged with enhancing communication, configuration and house equity — presented its recommendations to improve the school’s communication methods.

The Frameworks Committee began its work in July. The board meeting was the first part of the committee’s report to the School Board.

Mary Jane Shelley, facilitator of the Frameworks Committee, gave an introduction explaining the purpose of the group’s recommendations and how those recommendations came to light.

The final recommendations are a consensus of what committee members felt was most important.

“Not everybody is gung-ho about every single recommendation, but everybody can at least live with it,” said Williston’s Student Services Director Carter Smith, who also serves on the committee.

Shelley explained the committee chose five areas of focus: responses to parent concerns, issues with inconsistent execution, limited communication from the schools to the community, issues with Families as Partners and issues with the district Web site.

The group outlined goals under each area around which it based its recommendations.

Upper house teacher Debra McConnell presented ways to deal with parent concerns.

McConnell said the goals were to have consistent communication protocols set up and to let parents know who to contact with concerns. One recommendation was to hire a “communications officer” who could serve as point person for communications.

The idea of creating a communications position was a theme that ran through the presentation, including goals for improved consistency in communication. Wendy Goodrich, a St. George School Board member and Frameworks Committee member, also said a “point person” would help in this regard.

“Communication was inconsistent on a number of levels,” Goodrich said. “It was hard to know where to get information.”

Smith spoke about improvements in school-community communication, with the idea of spurring interest in school happenings.

“Knowledgeable and informed is one thing, but interested is another,” Smith said. “We need people to get interested.”

Recommendations included more frequent community-wide communication, creation of a sign in front of Williston Central School to highlight events and meetings, formation of more partnerships in the community, and having more dialogue nights and forums.

In the area of Families as Partners — and the group’s advisory council — the committee came up with goals aimed at giving FAP a clearer voice in the school and increasing parent participation. Recommendations were to change meeting times, give the advisory council more influence in school matters, and possibly change the name of FAP.

Committee member Kevin Mara gave the presentation about updates to the district’s Web site and how to make it more of a “home base” for school communication.

“I have a lot of experience in building and designing Web sites, and I have a lot of passion for it,” Mara said.

Mara mentioned the Chittenden South Supervisory Union is already in the process of updating Web sites for all the schools under its jurisdiction, and he’s seen early drafts of Williston’s site. He’s happy with what he’s seen and the recommendations created are to help the Web designers focus on important areas.

Among the recommendations were getting some parents to volunteer with tech support, updating house pages more frequently, making it easier to search the site for information, and putting an administrator in charge of the site.

“We need to keep it up-to-date and current,” Mara said.

Board members and administration officials were enthusiastic about the presentation. School Board Chairwoman Darlene Worth said the recommendations would be the basis of many future conversations and appreciated members of the committee talking at length.

“It brought it alive,” Worth said.

Worth said after the meeting it was unlikely the board would be able to hire an extra staff member for communication and Web site purposes in this tight budget season, but that someone already employed at the school might be able to undertake some of the responsibilities. She also said the board would have further discussions with the administration on how to best implement recommendations in a cost-effective manner.

Nicki Layman, who has attended many of the committee’s meetings as an audience member, said she’s been encouraged by the group’s work and discussions, but wants to know what will ultimately come of it.

“I’d like to see action,” Layman said. “If nothing is done, it’s going to create an even further rift between the school and the community.”

The Frameworks Committee is expected to return to the board in March or April for further recommendations regarding configuration and house equity.

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Nov. 20, 2008

Williston Police Officer Jamin Whitehead will host a Rape Aggression Defense class in January. The class is open to women who live in Williston, and is free of charge.

“The class is designed to empower women and give them some basic self defense options they can use when placed in a dangerous situation,” Whitehead said.

The class runs for four consecutive weeks beginning on Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. Space is limited to the first 20 women who sign up — the deadline is Dec. 29. Those under age 18 must provide written permission from a parent or legal guardian to take the class.

The first class will be held in the Community Room at the Williston Police Department. The remaining classes will be held in the Williston Central School gym. To sign up, call Williston Police at 878-6611 or stop by the department at 7928 Williston Road.

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