Arts in The NEK

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Created on Thursday, 12 May 2016 14:03

Written by Tim Laroche

THE NORTHEAST KINGDOM

The 177 miles of Interstate-91 that pass through Vermont form one of the major transportation routes of the Northeastern United States. The Vermont extension was built in the 1970s, and it carried all the promise of expanded industry, economy and an efficient passage to many of Vermont’s rural towns.

If one were to drive through Vermont via I-91 -- the largest north-south highway in the state -- one would practically see the northern expansion of industry that overtook the state’s agricultural past.

In the southern regions of the highway, at the crux of the Connecticut River in Brattleboro, just north of the Massachusetts border, a bridge has been under construction for years, and the highway condenses into a tight, single-lane corridor of Jersey barriers and orange traffic cones.

Brattleboro is one of the largest population centers in Vermont, and it is the most populous city along I-91.

Further north, Windsor County flies by with all its rolling pastures and gentle hills. The highway exit signs become more spaced apart at this point, and after the flash of traffic that usually accompanies the junctions into New Hampshire, traffic becomes sparse as well.

In Orange County, the pretty hills give way to the mountains from which the Green Mountain State derives its name.

A far cry from the majestic peaks of Colorado’s Rockies, and far even from the sharp granite cliffs of the White Mountains in New Hampshire – which are visible from many of the Green Mountain’s higher elevations – the Green Mountain range envelops the highway as it meanders through smaller towns and isolated villages.

The mountains here have been beaten-down and weathered from a millennia of harsh weather, and now they fuel a number of weather patterns that give rise to persistent clouds and temperatures that consistently fall below those of the rest of the state.

Further north now, one enters Caledonia County, whose seat and largest city, St. Johnsbury, has a population of just more than 7,600. There, the Victorian styled brick buildings make up the cultural and economic center of a region known simply as the Northeast Kingdom.

The NEK straddles the Canadian border, an area often overlooked by state and federal politicians aside from the flickering national media sensation brought on by tales of an opiate epidemic.

The NEK is the most rural and sparsely populated sub-section of the state, home to a powerful dairy industry and such known tourist havens as the Kingdom Trails and Willoughby Lake.

Most recently, that tourism industry has seen a number of massive blows following the fraud allegations against Q Burke Mountain Resorts owner Ariel Quiros Jr. and developer William Stenger.

And although the building of I-91 brought manufacturing and industry further north in Vermont, in many ways, that growth never fully took hold Caledonia County – an area whose largest employer, Weidmann Electrical Technology in St. Johnsbury employs only about 370 people.

The NEK’s fragile economy took a massive blow during the last recession, and many communities in the area are still reeling from its effects.

Despite the breathtaking natural beauty of the area, and despite the recent uptick of artisanal crafts and food, beer and cheese and cider and other goods, the NEK has a set of unique economic challenges. And many of these economic challenges trickle into the educational system of an area where population density is low and poverty is high.

Statewide too, there are a number of problems that coalesced into a perfect storm of factors that give rise to issues in the educational system.

For one, the number of children in Vermont has steadily fallen in the past few decades.

According to Sec. 1 of Act 46, the number of children in Vermont’s Kindergarten through 12^th grade system declined from 103,000 during the 1997 fiscal year to 78,000 in the 2012 fiscal year. This represents a 25,000-student, or almost 1/4 reduction in the number of children attending Vermont schools.

The decline in K-12 students in Vermont was not met with the same level of reduction of educational staff, however. According to the Act 46 explanation, this gave rise to a situation in which many schools in the state had few students in attendance.

As a result, the Vermont legislature passed Act 46 in 2015. The bill provided for supervisory union consolidation in many of the small towns in Vermont. These new structures were meant not to close small schools but to consolidate their resources in a way in which students would have greater access to the benefits of larger schools.

However, these reforms were not met with equal anticipation.

Some Vermonters say that the act was a move by the state to take control of the local education systems. Especially in the NEK, many people tend to be at odds with state government – which they say often represents the interests of Montpelier and Burlington disproportionally to the rest of the state.

And in an area where the Second Vermont Republic secession movement has long had some degree of support, state reforms are sometimes met with suspicion.

Fewer students and fewer taxpayers mean that schools have less money. And for a subject that has high material costs, many art teachers find themselves underfunded.

“A lot of art teachers, especially in the north or the rural parts of the state usually share their art space with the music teachers, with the afterschool program,” Clements said. “They don’t have their own art room. Or they have ‘art on a cart’ -- they push a cart of materials around to different classrooms. Or they’re divided between three schools to make up the equivalent of a full-time art teacher.”

Clements says that some of the challenges that art teachers are facing right now are due, in many cases, to seeing a large number of students every day.

“I think the big challenge for art teachers too is that we see all the kids,” Clements said. “I probably have over 400 kids per week that come through this room. On a given day, it could be 200.”

Among the list of other challenges that art teachers in the NEK face include: Limited instructional hours with students – most schools hold art classes once per week. Limited budgets, which result in teachers paying for materials. Loss of job stability – art teachers are often the first positions to be eliminated when budgets are cut. Understaffing, as a result of job cuts, means that most schools only have a single art teacher for multiple grade levels. Lack of professional development opportunities.