This article was written by the members of the Journalism class.

This edition features articles about

• U-32’s option based drills
• Student choices in school shootings
• Effects of the schedule change
• U-32’s phone ban
• U-32’s decreased student population
• Act 73
• Merging Schools

On Thursday, September 25, U-32 principal Rebecca Tatistcheff sat down with the journalism class to answer questions about the most up-and-coming topics around U-32. This is the first article in an ongoing series called Principal’s Presser. 

U-32’s Options Based Drills

by Inkwel Young

On Wednesday, September 24, 2025 U-32 practiced the “run” option of the options based safety drill. 

An options based safety drill is a lockdown drill that allows for teachers and students to make the best choice on what to do based on the situation. These could include staying in lockdown, or if deemed safe, leaving the building. 

During the drill on Wednesday, all students in the building safely left and went to each of the three meeting points across the campus. These were places around the campus where students would congregate in an emergency. Here teachers could take attendance and regroup.

Choosing the meeting places took a lot of consideration, by administrators, such as JB and Amy Molina, who planned it. “They have exits to off campus locations, if that were needed ever, and so we practice going there [for] in case you ever needed that,” said Becca. 

They decided on the head of the trails in the woods, behind the softball field, and down by the tennis courts. After reaching the first meeting point during the drill, the students travelled to each of the other two locations so that they could be familiarized with the different places they would go in an emergency. 

Although it wasn’t a perfect drill, Becca said, “this is the first one where we silently left the building as 600 people.” Of course, that silence didn’t last forever, which is one of the things Becca wants to change in future drills.

Despite any problems, Becca is proud of the student body. She said, “That was pretty amazing, and a testament to you all taking things seriously.”

Options in a School Shooting

by Allie Bourgeois

School safety has become an increasingly big concern in recent years. In accordance with guidance from the Vermont Agency of Education, WCUUSD has implemented an Options-Based safety drill. The options are to run, hide, or fight. 

As a district, we’ve long been practicing hiding through the lockdown drill. While we’re not going to practice fighting, in the newest drill we practiced evacuating the school to specific rally points. 

This new drill raised some questions within the school community. Becca spoke on this. 

“It’s not that you’re inevitably going to run… there are lots of instances where… you might choose to just stay in lockdown,” said Becca. That’s why it’s options-based; “You have to feel like going to one of those rally points is a better option than staying where you are,” she said. It’s about assessing your surroundings to determine what’s safest. 

However, most high school classes are on the second floor, where it’s significantly harder to get out of the building. So even if you do decide that it is safer to leave, you may not be able to. The same goes for when there’s deep snow outside. 

“I would say it’s probably not a better option if you can’t get there,” said Becca.

As a preventative instead of a responsive measure, a lot of schools have a police officer stationed at the front of the building. 

There are benefits to this; “it can create relationships with our law enforcement officers… so it’s easier for you to feel like they’re helping to keep you safe,” said Becca. But there are also downsides.

“Relationships with police for many of our students and families are complicated. Some folks feel really protected by them. Some folks feel like it’s not a safe space,” said Becca. She said that in order to decide on anything in that regard, she would want input from the community. 

However, “it’s not something that we have entertained, and to my knowledge, it’s not something that this district has any sort of appetite for right now,” said Becca.

Effects of the 7 Class Schedule

by Kathryn Stauffer

This school year U-32 switched from an eight class schedule to a seven class one. This limits both the amount and variety of classes that students can take.

Throughout recent years, U-32 has seen an increase in the number of students attending early college. With only fifteen in the 2022-2023 school year increasing to thirty four in the 2024-2025 school year. The numbers have dipped this year with only twenty four students attending early college. This led Becca Tatistcheff, principal at U-32, to wonder, “what keeps you on campus?…What kind of experience [do] you want to have as a senior that would be better here than it would be someplace else?” 

Is it the class choices that keep students on campus? Or is it the feeling of necessity to complete all of one’s credits while in the U-32 building? Becca said, “I think the combination of, how do we help folks feel connected here, how do we…create learning opportunities…that are spread among four years, is something that we should continue to talk about.” 

The impact of this seven class schedule could also impact the amount of electives that the younger students can take. “I would say that over the course of four years, you’re still able to take those electives,” said Becca. These electives include languages, arts, and music. “It’s a reality in any school ever…that…there are constraints on a schedule.”

Uncertainty at U-32 Regarding Phone Ban

by Jackson Stevens

In the 2025 legislative session, a bill was passed that requires schools across Vermont to eliminate students’ access to their phones and any non-school issued devices during school hours. This bill will take effect in the 2026-2027 school year, giving schools time to figure out how they will implement this practice into their districts. 

When Becca was asked about the current plans for phone policy when the bill comes into effect, she stated that she was, “Currently waiting for policy language from the state [that comes] in December,” and that she would look to the student council to assist with drafting a policy that both complies with the new law and has student approval. 

She did not shed any light on what this bill’s effects would look like in U-32, other than “By a certain time, there’s a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones.” Becca did not give any insight into whether or not she had looked at the bill’s wording as passed, or how U-32 would look in comparison to other high schools, like Montpelier, when it comes to things like phone safes or Yondr pouches.

Many schools in Vermont already have their own versions of the new phone policy, while U-32 still allows students to have full access to their phones outside of the classroom. However, this will change going into the next school year.

.

Decreasing School Age Population and U-32

by Adeline Cannella  

With the decreasing population of school age kids in the US, schools in Vermont have become smaller. Because of our already low population, Central Vermont rural communities are hit hard by this decrease. There are “less than 100 7th graders on campus this year,” said Becca. This is a major decrease, with this year’s graduating senior class of 135 kids. There are new structures in place this year to help this issue. 

“Part of changing the schedule means that we’re able to continue to have a range of class offerings with more students in the class,” said Becca. With this new schedule, some classes are not offered every year. For example, AP Biology and AP Chemistry are alternating years to be available to students. This is an example of a new structure due to the fact that the population of U-32 students is decreasing. 

“One of the structures is a teaming structure, similar to what you had in middle school,” said Becca. Middle school students are split into three even Core groups. Each of those Cores are supported by a team of five teachers. Those students share classes with those teachers. This student grouping structure allows the class sizes to remain stable over time.

With the decreasing population, changes have ensued to decrease the effect on class size. Students have the option to go to CCV or early college. While this is a great opportunity for some, it decreases the population of upperclassmen on campus. To counter that, Becca wondered, “How do we build a sense of community?”

Act 73 Funding Changes

by Donovan Murphy

The passing of the Act 73 legislation in July means big changes are coming to Vermont schools; some of these changes include a shift to a weighted funding formula for schools and potential school consolidations. These changes have many students and families concerned about how it may impact WCUUSD schools.

The upcoming changes aim to adjust the distribution of the Ed fund to make it more equitable, so students in big and small schools can get a similar school experience. “For example, much of what happens right now, like taxes, are collected into what’s called the Ed fund. The Ed fund then distributes a certain amount, and local property tax makes up a secondary amount,” said Becca.

WCUUSD Elementary schools are very diversely and sometimes unevenly funded due to the current funding system. The current per pupil funding system causes smaller rural schools to often lack funding due to their small student population, schools with higher populations receive more funding.

Becca said these changes are intended to resolve some issues with the current funding system. The goal with these changes is to improve the school experience for students by changing how their schools are funded. She said, “So the intent of the state is to get more equitable distribution, and we don’t have a clear sense of what that might look like.” 

Becca says the upcoming changes in funding will change the current system to a foundational funding system. How will that work? “We actually don’t know yet what a new funding formula would look like. We know it would go to foundational funding, which is a per pupil, but we don’t know what all the weights that would be included would be.”

Becca said that Act 73’s impact on U-32 students is still unclear at this point; there are a lot of unknowns, and that will remain the case until the state’s redistricting plan is unveiled in December. “I’m going to say, . . .  we don’t have a sense from the state of…what does redistricting look like? What’s a timeline for potential consolidation? What does a process of consolidation look like? That’s not information that is clear yet.”

School Mergers

by Bella Foster

“It’s been a talk for a long time,” said Becca. The aging population in Vermont has created rifts in the school system. The falling population of school aged children in Vermont has led to a conversation around merging rural schools. 

In 2018, local kindergarten through eighth grade schools, Orange Center School and Washington Village School had an early start to this push to merge. Schools in Orange and Washington made the independent plan to merge before the state enforced district merging. This action made it so the community had a larger say in how the merger would take place. Now in 2025 many students at both U-32 and Montpelier are aware of the idea of a merger. However, community members are unaware that they have a place to be a part of the conversation involving mergers. 

Vermont Act 46 of 2015 provides information surrounding the long term conversation of mergers in Vermont. Becca stated, “There is a merger process in the state of Vermont that happened under Act 46 which requires districts to create a study group,” However, Becca confirmed that the U-32 and Montpelier school boards have decided to put a pause on the merger conversation. Along with a confirmed pause in the conversation, board members decided that the WCUUSD board has made the decision to not plan a merger before the state decides to enforce one. 

However Becca alluded to the reason behind the pause in the conversation, ”There’s not a lot of information still and probably won’t be more information until December.” In the meantime Becca believes that the merger is much more complicated than what meets the eye. “It’s important that we continue to be a place that is innovating and changing and responding to the ways in which our environment is changing,” stated Becca.