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Local manufacturer donates steel to welding and manufacturing programs; board appoints representative for H.955 regional work
Summary
Hazellet Strip Casting donated steel and expressed interest in internships and additional support for the center’s welding and manufacturing programs. The board accepted the donation and appointed a representative to take part in H.955-related regional governance and cooperative-service discussions.
The board accepted a sizable material donation from Hazellet Strip Casting (a strip-casting and metals manufacturing firm) to support the center’s welding and advanced manufacturing programs. Board member Bill Beerman and a staff speaker described how Dan Gleason, a company contact, coordinated the donation and expressed willingness to provide future material, speak to students and host interns. "He is super enthusiastic about education... he would love to donate thousands of dollars more," a board speaker said about the donor’s interest.
The board moved and approved acceptance of the donation and discussed logistics for sharing some materials with other educational partners in the state. Staff cautioned against taking in too much inventory and noted other centers might also benefit; the board authorized the acceptance with standard acknowledgments and plans to send a donor letter.
In a separate governance item tied to recently enacted H.955, the board reviewed timelines for both the governance (merger considerations among districts) and administrative (cooperative educational service area) pieces of the law. The superintendent asked the board to appoint a representative to participate in Champlain Valley South CESA and the H.955 implementation conversations; she volunteered to serve on the administrative/SEESSAW work and the board approved that appointment.
Members asked practical questions about the scope of the CESA, what services might be shared (special education, transportation, business office) and the timeline for decisions, and staff promised to return with additional detail. The board also discussed related community partnership items, including a proposed nonbinding MOU with the Middlebury Area Land Trust to formalize a longstanding collaboration for student fieldwork and trail projects; staff said the MOU is nonbinding and does not change underlying insurance coverage for students.
