Editor’s Note: This article was based on interviews with only Shay Chantel. This is Shay’s story to tell but we recognize other perspectives may not be represented. This piece was originally published in June 2019, but was taken down and…
Author: Payton Kurrle
Making an Album: Jacob Bradley
Jacob Bradley pulls into the driveway of Colin McCaffrey’s rustic house. Colin meets him at the door and the two walk into a green-painted room. Sound-dampening boards hang on the walls. In one section of the room is a desk…
“An unfinished painting”: Brady Hill’s Digital Media
On Friday, September 14th, Brady Hill loaded two dirt bikes in the back of his father’s blue truck. In the camper behind, he packed his racing uniform, helmet, and boots. He was headed to Maine for the weekend, to race…
“Least of All Myself”: The life, work, and death of Bob Kurrle
On July 11th, 1986, my grandfather, Robert “Bob” J. Kurrle, returned to his home in Berlin from his office in Montpelier, shut the garage doors, started his car, and sat on the floor with a pen and paper to begin…
“It’s great to know you can be good at something else too”: The Art Show
Editor’s Note: The featured image pictures work done by Senior Jayden Hudson. Isabel Poulson sat off to the side of the atrium with headphones over her ears and a paintbrush in hand. As parents walked by, they stopped to watch…
“It’s a good moment in time”: Unified Bowling
On November 30th, 2017, three yellow school buses pulled up to the doors of Twin City Lane in Barre, Vermont. Students filed into the bowling alley, wearing a t-shirt with their school’s name on it. Yellow blue and green shirts…
Suspension: A Consistent Policy?
Editors’ Note: The cases described in this piece contain details from the students interviewed and have not been corroborated by other sources. Last month a crowd gathered in the atrium, recording on their iPhones as two girls fought, pulling each…
Snapshot: How Long to Finish a Large at Dairy Creme?
Two cars pulled into the Dairy Creme parking lot, side-by-side. Bella Parento from Montpelier and Eli Stoudt from U-32 met here for an ice cream eating competition. The two regularly eat creemees, and had previously been bragging about which one…
Teacher Profile: Christiana Martin, “It’s easy to talk to students about something you love.”
Christiana Martin sits in a chair at the front of the room, cracking herself up. Her students sit in two rows of chairs, acting out a jury selection. “I’m not sure it had a whole lot of academic value…
Do Proficiencies Motivate Students?
Students are scattered around the science lab in small groups. In front of each lies a packet and a small plastic dish. As the dishes are opened, students rush over to other groups, showing the bacteria-filled containers to their friends.…
“There is Another Life”: Opiate Responders Pt. 2
This is part two in the series “Opiate Responders” Part one is here. In 2012, Ray Richardson got out of prison and purchased a track phone that he could not turn on. “I had kept turning it off, but I…
Working with Crisis
Karen Kurrle’s office walls are lined with colorful thank you cards and a basket of therapeutic toys. Each comes with a story. Her photo is framed on the wall, with a paper crown glued to her head, surrounded by loving…
Snapshot: Girls’ Hockey, Before & After Brattleboro
BEFORE: Payton Kurrle An hour into the bus ride, players are asleep with their heads resting on backpacks, and feet stretched across the bus aisle. After a strong start to the season, the Raiders had lost a series of games,…