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Stowe Emergency Medical Services is raising its rates to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of aiding people in the area. Photo by Gordon Miller/Stowe Reporter This story by Patrick Bilow was first published in the Stowe Reporter on Dec. 4, 2025. Stowe Emergency Medical Services is raising its rates to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of aiding people in the area. According to Assistant EMS Chief Scott Brinkman, the gap between billed revenue and the cost of providing services has widened over the years. Operational costs, including medical supplies, equipment maintenance, fuel and recently implemented personnel wages are outpacing revenue, he added. The department is also missing out on some reimbursements for service, either through inconsistencies with billing out-of-state patients or non-payment after service, the cost of which the town of Stowe absorbs as bad debt rather than sending patients to collections. “We haven’t sent an ambulance bill to collections since we started billing in the late 80s,” Brinkman said. At the time, the sentiment behind that decision was to not bill Stowe residents who either don’t have insurance or can’t afford a service, and who already support Stowe EMS through taxes, Brinkman said. In addition to billing, the department relies on taxes and a nonprofit for revenue. To narrow that gap between operational expenses and revenue, Stowe EMS is raising its rates by more than 100% in some cases. The bill for a critical care transplant, the department’s most-costly service, will more than double from $1,250 to $3,210. ALS 1 and 2 Emergency responses will increase from $1,000 to $1,8000 and $1,400 to $2,716, respectively, and BLS Emergency services from $750 to $1,500. Higher rates will allow the department to recoup costs from a convoluted healthcare system with different policies and reimbursement rates. Prior to the rate change, Stowe EMS offered a basic level of service that cost $1,000, but depending on a patient’s insurance policy, the reimbursement for that service ranged from full to partial. As rates increased and became more nuanced in surrounding towns, Stowe EMS realized it was leaving money on the table for policies that reimburse in full. “So, by raising our rates overall, there are going to be times where we make the entire rate,” Brinkman said, “and that’s going to help us with all of the write offs we have to do, or the contractual allowances we have to accept for billing Medicare and Medicaid.” Brinkman likened the rate change to a familiar convenience store exchange. “If you went to Maplefields in town for a coffee, and you were on some kind of a program that the state covered that cup of coffee for you, and Maplefields was only making 40 cents on that cup of coffee, then they might raise the rates for a person walking in the door that doesn’t have that assistance, so they can make up the difference,” Brinkman said. As rates increase the department is also trying to recoup reimbursements from out-of-state patients, which Brinkman said accounts for roughly half of EMS calls nowadays, a trend that has shifted over the years. According to Brinkman, the department noticed that reimbursement checks are sent to homes for out-of-state patients, rather than the department for in-state patients. Oftentimes those checks don’t make it to Stowe. “We aren’t trying to put ourselves in a place that is, three times the price of an ambulance run in another neighboring town or anything like that,” Brinkman said. “We’re just trying to stay competitive.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Stowe EMS raises its rates to offset the hassles of insurance.

Students and staff raise a Somali flag at the Winooski schools on Friday, Dec. 5. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger The Winooski School District took down its website and disconnected many of its office phones Monday after receiving what its superintendent described as a flood of racist and violent messages in response to the district’s decision to raise a Somali flag. Many of the messages appear to be part of a coordinated effort to target the district, where about 9% of students are Somali, spurred by prominent right-wing social media accounts, according to Wilmer Chavarria, the Winooski schools superintendent. The district was forwarding messages it received on Monday to state law enforcement officials. A spokesperson for the Vermont State Police said investigators had been sent more than 200 such messages as of Monday afternoon and said their content so far appeared to be part of a “coordinated national campaign” against the district. So far, none of the messages state investigators had reviewed seemed to present a credible threat of violence, Adam Silverman, the state police spokesperson, said in an email. District leaders hosted a Somali flag-raising ceremony on Friday at the city’s combined elementary, middle and high school campus. The district later posted images and a video of the event, showing some of the students attending it, to its social media feeds. The flag-raising was one of several actions the district has planned to show support for its Somali community in response to President Donald Trump’s tirade last week during a Cabinet meeting against Somali people living in Minnesota, according to Chavarria. Trump called Somalis “garbage” that he said he did not want to have in the country and later ordered immigration agents into Minnesota. Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security then touted the arrest of several Somali men, calling them the “worst of the worst.” The president has pointed to a sweeping fraud scandal in Minnesota that prosecutors allege largely involved Somali people as a justification for his actions. Wilmer Chavarria, Winooski schools superintendent, speaks with students and staff before a Somali flag-raising ceremony in Winooski on Friday, Dec. 5. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger “It’s almost marching orders for a large part of the U.S. population to go and harass our community,” Chavarria said, of the president’s comments, in an interview. Starting Monday morning, the Winooski School District’s phone lines started “blowing up,” Chavarria said. He said some people were calling district employees the N-word, among other offensive names. Some calls included phrases such as “We’re coming for you. You don’t know what’s coming. You’re about to find out,” he said. The messages coincided with posts on a number of popular right-wing social media pages that included the video of the flag-raising, contact information for the district and photos of its school board members, Chavarria said. He said he believed the posts were the reason for the sudden onslaught of calls, as well as a torrent of emails. The video being spread online shows only a Somali flag, which Chavarria said seems to have given the false impression that the school was flying it in place of a U.S. flag. He said that notion was reflected in the messages district employees received Monday. A Somali flag was raised next to a U.S. flag at the Winooski school campus on Friday, Dec. 5. Photo courtesy of Winooski School District In a post to its own social media feeds Monday, the district said it wanted “to assure our community” that the Somali flag was being flown on one of three flagpoles outside the city’s school, next to a U.S. flag and Vermont flag. The U.S. flag “remains in its proper place at the highest point,” the post stated. It also said the Somali flag would be flown for only one week. As of Monday afternoon, posts were visible on the X accounts “End Wokeness” and “Libs of TikTok,” which together have more than 8 million…

Brattleboro Union High School. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger A Vermont Superior Court Judge dismissed a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former Brattleboro Union High School principal against his former school district. Principal Steve Perrin was fired in November 2022 after the Windham Southeast School District accused him of mishandling an investigation into a sexual assault. A former student also accused him of harassing her and making inappropriate advances, according to court documents. Perrin first appealed his termination to the school board following his firing. After school board members affirmed their decision to terminate him, he filed the lawsuit in March 2023. READ MORE Perrin vehemently denied the claims and alleged that the school board had wrongfully terminated him, defamed him and denied him his due process. Superior Court Judge David Barra, in a Nov. 26 ruling, granted summary judgement to the defendants, including the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, the Windham Southeast School District, and the 10 individuals serving as members of the board at the time of Perrin’s termination. The decision was first reported by the Brattleboro Reformer. Perrin could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Theodore Kramer, said in an email that “from time to time a case comes along that shakes your faith in fairness and our system of justice.” “In the process of defending him, many educators confided in us that ‘there but for the grace of God go I,'” Kramer wrote. “That is to say, one accuser can end a career.” Kramer added that Perrin was “undeterred, and determined to secure justice” and said he planned on appealing to the Vermont Supreme Court. Perrin first started as principal of the Brattleboro school in 2011 but was fired in November 2022 after a decision of the school board. The board determined that it was “more likely than not” that Perrin had conducted an “inappropriate and harmful investigation” of a student’s sexual assault, according to court documents. An independent investigator hired by the school district after the allegations surfaced found a “pattern of harassment, abuse, and unprofessional conduct” by Perrin, court documents read. The former student, named Jane Doe in court documents, said that Perrin had interviewed her about a sexual assault off campus while she was a student at Brattleboro Union High School. According to court documents, the former principal interviewed the student alone and behind closed doors in his office. He did not notify her parents of the interview despite her request to do so. “Perrin persisted in questioning her despite her reluctance to answer and threatened her with an accusation of filing a false report,” court documents read. Perrin then allegedly instructed a staff member not to file a report about the sexual assault with the Vermont Department for Children and Families that the staff member felt was required, according to court documents. (A report was eventually filed.) Following the interview, Perrin had several more “uncomfortable interactions” with Doe — calling her into his office to interview her alone again, walking her between classes and making “uncomfortable and unwelcome remarks” about her appearance, according to court documents. Perrin “touched Doe’s hair on one occasion” and “took a sexual interest in Doe,” according to court documents and transcripts. Kramer, in an email, dismissed the allegations as “the most incredible and nonsensical of accusations.” The school board, Kramer said in court documents, failed to “properly weigh the evidence,” and he said conflicting testimony was not considered. He further argued the student’s testimony lacked any corroborating evidence. Barra disagreed, writing in his decision that there was “sufficient evidence to make the findings the Board made.” In weighing the school board’s decision to terminate Perrin, Barra wrote that it was not the role of the Superior Court to weigh the strength of testimony or…

Amara and Nick with their mom, Joanne, at Amara’s wedding. Amara Chester and Nick Armstrong are twins. They say that many assume they share the exact same interests—but when it came to their education and career, each followed their own path. They grew up in Pownal in the furthest southwest corner of the state. From a young age (thanks to a steady message from their mom), Amara and Nick knew that education could open doors for them. “Mom was clear she didn’t want us to stay in our hometown,” Nick said. “She wanted us to see the world. If we came back later, that was fine, but she wanted us to see something else first.” While their mom hadn’t gone to college herself, she encouraged the twins and their older sister to think out of their comfort zones when it came to their futures. So they did, stretching their wings to the west coast to pursue their passions. For Amara, it’s speech pathology. For Nick, it’s an entrepreneurial approach to real estate. Amara discovered speech pathology (and her future) in California In high school, Amara thought she might go into the medical field because she shared the mindset of her older sister, Mariah, who became a nurse. She knew she wanted a career with strong personal connections. “I was interested in as much interpersonal interaction as possible,” she said. A human services class her high school, Mount Anthony Union in Bennington, introduced her to additional career ideas—and it included a skills test that suggested speech pathology. “I had never even heard of speech pathology before, but the more I looked into it, the more I liked the idea. I liked that it was care and support in a non-emergency setting.” As Amara began searching for colleges, she looked for schools with three criteria: a major in communication sciences, a Christian college, and warm weather far from home. She typed one simple phrase into Google: “Christian colleges with warm weather and speech pathology.” That search led her to Biola University in California. Of the three colleges she ultimately applied to, Biola offered the strongest financial aid package, which deepened its appeal. Amara says that Monda Kelley, an Outreach Counselor with VSAC’s Talent Search program, played a huge role in that outcome. “My entire junior and senior year I was writing scholarship applications every week,” she said. “Monda printed this big list of scholarships for me. We even found one for people who are left-handed, like me.” She remembers her mom sitting in the library during meetings and working beside her. “It was always collaborative. We would not have had that level of information without VSAC.” Amara’s first plane ride—ever—took her to California for college. At Biola, she earned a bachelor’s degree in speech disorders and then completed her master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology. Far from home, Amara found community through the Torrey Honors program. “We had three-hour book discussions twice a week. I love reading, and that was a huge draw for me,” she said. Today, Amara lives in Huntington Beach with her husband, Zach, and their six-month-old child. She works at a nonprofit called the Brain Rehabilitative and Injury Network, which helps people who have experienced traumatic brain injuries, strokes, or conditions like dementia. “A lot of clients have used up their insurance, and they can’t afford the therapy they still need,” she explained. “We don’t turn people away because of finances. We can give scholarships as needed.” Her focus is cognitive therapy, helping people rebuild thinking and communication skills. And, after becoming a mom herself recently, she appreciates that her job has flexibility. “Maintaining my license is important to me, and I love being a mom. I’m trying to balance both.” Looking back, she feels certain that VSAC made a major difference. “We were first-generation. We didn’t know the process or the culture around college. Without VSAC, I would not have known where to look for scholarships. A good…