Rutland City Archives - Stafford Technical Center

STCN Winter Storm Watch

STCN’S KEVIN RICHER

(RUTLAND, VT) As of 8PM EDT the snowstorm is currently switching over to heavy wet snow across the area. Road conditions are deteriorating across the state. The Vermont Department of Transportation is reporting that road conditions are difficult. Please slow down if you have to travel this evening. Due to the storm Rutland City Public Schools will be closed tomorrow.

The National Weather Service has been tweaking their forecast a little as they are calling for 6-12 inches of wet, heavy snow and up to a tenth of an inch of ice. Over the night tonight we will see rain and snow mixing on and off. Between 9pm tonight and 2am tomorrow is when we will see the heaviest snowfall rates as we could see up to 1-2 inches of snow per hour. Tomorrow we will continue to see a mix of rain and snow as temperatures will only be around the freezing mark. We will see additional accumulations of about 1-3 inches.

Keep checking staffordonline.org for the latest on this winter storm.

Stafford SADD Members Underwrite Christ the King DARE Program Expenses

The Stafford Technical Center SADD Chapter was advised by Bill Lucci, a parent of a Christ the King student and Assistant Director-Adult Technical Education at Stafford Technical Center that the Christ the King DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) Program at Christ the King School was in need of funds to pay for the expenses for running the program. The Rutland City Police Department has agreed to provide the services of the DARE Instructor, Officer Keith Lorman, who has undergone specific training to provide the DARE core curriculum to fifth or sixth graders. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts and a generally poor economic environment, the funds pay for the program’s expenses were not there. Mr. Lucci told the SADD members about the plight of Mrs. Barbagallo’s fifth grade class, and they unanimously voted to donate the funds ($200) to run the programs.

SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) is a peer leadership program designed to make students role models of responsible behaviors and to act to reduce negative behaviors, such as drug usage. The students saw the opportunities to help the younger students in this case as a perfect example of the type of positive activities that they should be promoting. Normally, the SADD Chapter never has any additional funds, but the chapter just won $1200 as national finalists in a contest involving distracted driving that was run through ActOutLoud.org. The SADD members have chosen to deal with the issue of eating while driving in this contest and their project will be promoted on that site and there will be voting through that site from May 10-21, for the winners, who will get $10,000.

The Stafford Technical Center SADD Chapter is made up of Mill River Union High School students Kayla Jones, Nate Hance, James Reed, Cantlin Eaton, Cierra Phelps, Erika Stocker, and Haley Cotrupi, Rutland High School students Ashley Barnes, Chris Crout, Jamie Bonilla and Jordan Grenier, West Rutland High School student Kayla Stewart, Proctor High School student Kyle Lenher, and Otter Valley Union High School students Joanna Lilly and Geoffry McDonald.

Two Stafford Students Win Governor’s Award for Community Service

Two Stafford Technical Center students, Erika Stocker of Wallingford, and Ashley Barnes of Rutland, recently won the Governor’s Award for Community Service in the youth division. Both girls are seniors in the Public Safety Services Program and are members of the Students Against Destructive Decisions Chapter at Stafford Technical Center. The awards are granted through the Vermont Commission on National and Community Service, a bipartisan committee of 15 persons appointed by the governor. Both Ashley and Erika have also been nominated for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award at the gold level.

Ashley Barnes has been an active member of the Rutland City Police Cadets and has done hundreds of hours of assisting with traffic and crowd control, parades, training and other events over a 2 and a half year period. Ashley has assisted Detective Ray LaMoria of the Rutland City Police in teaching the RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) Program to all sorts of people, from elementary school students, to high school students, to college students, and to special populations. Ashley plans on becoming a trainer in this program.

Both Ashley and Erika are both active members of the Stafford Technical Center SADD Chapter, and have donated hundreds of hours in training, and in projects designed to reduce the incidence of underage drinking, promote positive personal behaviors, provide positive role models, and to reduce other negative behaviors such as drug usage, dating violence, bullying, etc. They have presented on topics such as “Improper Cell Phone Use”, “Sexting”, and “Teen Dating Violence” at a number of schools and the state-wide Governor’s Youth Leadership Conference. They have been part of a number of highway safety projects, including the “Slow Down, Stick Around” Program which partnered community members and area libraries in an attempt to increase awareness of the dangers of speeding in cars.

Erika has been a very involved member of the Wallingford Fire Department, where she has done every task possible for a junior firefighter for the last five years. She has reported to car crashes, fire scenes, fundraisers, community benefit programs, and training. Her dedication is such that she has on more than one occasion been at a fire scene so late into the night that she came directly to school from the fire scene.

Public Safety Services Students Become Nationally Certified in Hazardous Materials Awareness

Ten students in the Forestry and Natural Resources and Public Safety Services Programs at Stafford Technical Center recently became certified at the Awareness Level in the area of Hazardous Materials. Chief Robert Schlacter of the Rutland City Fire Department was the instructor through the Vermont Fire Academy for this course. Public Safety Services is a program that serves individuals who may be involved in emergency services – fire police, and rescue, as well as those in related occupations- dispatching, courts, attorneys, etc. Obviously, the professionals in emergency services, the first responders, are extremely at risk to be involved in a hazardous materials incident in a truck crash, a train derailment or a spill or explosion in an industrial facility, as are arborists and tree surgeons who also respond to these emergencies or to the cleanup.

There are tens of thousands of potentially hazardous materials that first responders may encounter. Some may be flammable, some may be corrosive, and give burns, like acids, some may be radioactive, some may be biological agents that are infectious, some may be explosive, and then there are some that are classified as dangerous, which may have more than one risk associated with it.

The students who demonstrated their mastery of this course, and who received national certification in this area were: Christopher Crout, Jordan Grenier, and James Bonilla of Rutland High School, Kyle Lenher of Proctor High School, Geoffry McDonald of Otter Valley Union High School, Kayla Stewart of West Rutland High School, Jakob Galvin and Ben Alger of Fair Haven Union High School, and James Reed, Haley Cotrupi, and Cierra Phelps of Mill River Union High School. Chris Crout, Ben Alger, Kayla Stewart, and Kyle Lenher all scored 100% on this difficult examination.

Ben Alger is a member of the Orwell Volunteer Fire Department and James Reed is on the Middletown Volunteer Fire Department. Ben Alger and Jakob Galvin are members of Mark Skakel’s Forestry and Natural Resoures Program.

Students Link Up With Rutland Free Library For Highway Safety

Students Highway Safety Photo Recently, students from the Vermont Teen Leadership Safety Program Chapters in Proctor High School and Stafford Technical Center began a partnership with the Rutland Free Library in Rutland which is aimed at reducing excessive speed on roads and highways and the many crashes which result from speeding. At the winter meeting of the Vermont Teen Leadership Safety Program (VTLSP), an organization of high school students from about 40 Vermont schools, which focuses on highway safety issues, the students decided that they wanted to work on a project to reduce the incidence of speeding and the deaths and injuries resulting from speeding.

They came up with a theme for the campaign, “Slow Down, Stick Around”. The theme would be printed on ribbons and would have a card explaining the risks of speeding attached. The plan originally was to disseminate these ribbons at highway rest areas and visitors centers, but when they were done, some additional venues were discussed- auto body and repair shops, chambers of commerce, and car dealers. Someone else recognized that the ribbons would make excellent book marks, and would tend to be used over and over, so libraries became sites to give out the ribbons and cards.

Some of the facts involving speeding are: 36% of all fatal motorcycle crashes are speed related, as speed goes up, the likelihood of a fatality increases, and young males are the most likely to be involved in a fatal speed-related crash.

The students involved in delivering the basket full of ribbons and cards to Dan Amesburry, the assistant director of the Rutland Free Library were: Taylor Trombley of Proctor High School and her VTLSP Advisor, Claire Molner, two students from Rutland High School’s GMTI Program, Jonathan Giffin and Cameo Bixby- Clemons, Lt. Kevin Geno of the Rutland City Police Department, Rutland County Sherriff Stephen Benard, and two Stafford Technical Center students, Kayla Jones of Tinmouth, and Ashley Barnes of Rutland.

Photo: Slow Down, Stick Around Rutland at the Rutland Free Library: Dan Amesburry (w/beard), Claire Molner, Jonathan Giffin, Lt. Kevin Geno, Ashley Barnes, Kayla Jones, and Taylor Trombley

Public Safety Services Program masters Haz-Mat Certifications

Eight, first year students in the Public Safety Services Program at Stafford Technical Center recently became certified at the awareness level in the area of hazardous materials. Chief Robert Schlacter of the Rutland City Fire Department was the instructor of record.

The Public Safety Services Program serves individuals who may be involved in emergency services-fire, police, rescue, and other related occupations such as corrections, courts, and dispatching. Those first responders are at the most risk of to be involved in a hazardous materials incident involving a truck crash, train delrailment, and spill or explosion in an industrial facility.

There tens of thousands of potentially hazardous materials that first responders may encounter. Some may be flammable, corrosive, radioactive, explosive, cause burns or are infectious. A number of these materials are classified as dangerous, and have more than one risk associated with it.

The students who demonstrated their mastery of this course and received national certification were:

Ashley Barnes and Daniel Ball-RHS, Jo Lilly-Poultney, Cody Hesse and Justin Cram-Otter Valley, Cantlin Eaton, Kayla Jones, and Nate Hance-Mill River. Cantlin Eaton scored 100% on this difficult examination.