Some people say the Raquette River is the most dammed in the Adirondack Park. It’s hard to argue against. 

In spots once graced with natural falls never to be seen again, a series of 21 dams and powerhouses harness the extraordinary force of water that accumulates in the lakes and streams of the western Adirondack highlands. 

The dams, impressive feats of engineering and design, carry the weight of history and the overlooked hard work of generations that have made the North Country home. As New York state struggles to transition to a decarbonized power grid — with an ambitious target date of 2040 — the most reliable form of renewable energy remains one of the oldest: hydropower. 

Think of all the coal that would have been burned for every megawatt of power produced by the dams on the Raquette River. I was curious, just how much power can a river flowing from the Adirondack Park produce? A surprising amount, it turns out.

Before trying to pencil out the math, I went to take a look. 

Most of the hydropower dams on the Raquette, along with scores more across the state, are owned by Brookfield Renewables, a Canadian-based renewable energy company. Brookfield brings many Adirondack paddles these days.

The investigation begins

I met up with Tom French, and his drone, at the Brookfield-sponsored boat launch. This was on Rainbow Falls Reservoir, a moderate-sized waterbody and the last impoundment on the Raquette fully within the park. 

We paddled past the spillway and alongside a long earthen embankment. Nearby Carry Falls Reservoir is the largest in the chain of impoundments that track the Raquette as it heads northwest out of the park and toward the St. Lawrence, where its confluence rests within the Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation. 

Many of the reservoirs offer easy paddles. Some cross Carry Falls and portage to a put-in on the Jordan River for a truer wilderness experience. 

We didn’t stay long on Rainbow Falls. We were in search of the exact spot where the Raquette crosses the Blue Line. To get there, you have to launch onto the much smaller Five Falls Reservoir. Then, you have to paddle a short distance upstream toward the powerhouse at Rainbow Falls. 

We left the ponded impoundment and headed into a stretch of more typical river, winding toward uplands in the distance. We knew we started outside of the park and would eventually cross over the Blue Line, keeping our eyes out for the telltale state Forest Preserve signs. A sliver of Whitehill Wild Forest abuts and crosses the Raquette where the river crosses the Blue Line. After spotting the first state land sign, French and I pulled along the northern shore and got out to snap pictures of what seemed to be a boundary marker of not just the wild forest but the entire park. 

“I guess we found it,” French said. 

The discovery

Further upstream, the massive structure of the dam loomed in the background. The powerhouse is set a decent distance downstream of the dam itself, fed by a long penstock. Before turning back, we paddled past the base of what remains of the falls that had once been. Water spilled over sharp boulders, cut over thousands of years by the same force that now powers thousands of homes. 

The Raquette River’s hydropower plants are “run-of-river” facilities. Meaning, they rely on the natural flow of the river for power, not the potential of water stored behind the dam and controlled by operators. The phrase “run-of-river” often comes up to suggest they have little impact on the environment.

But the impact of the dams is clear. From above, the string of dams and reservoirs look less like the natural course of a free flowing river than they do a chain of lakes disrupted by sharp, industrial breaks in the landscape. From the water, strong winds stir up waves that flow in all directions.

Federal dam licenses include public access requirements Come across the telltale signs of nearby hydropower generation — a plethora of transmission lines, “Danger” signs and fences and water cascading off the face of a sheer concrete structure — and a canoe launch is probably nearby.

I prefer a remote wilderness paddle and the feeling of being alone in a place that at least feels untouched by humanity’s grubby paws. In covering the Adirondacks, though, the flipside of (seemingly) untouched nature is always society’s inextricable connection to the landscape we help shape. Exploring the Adirondacks also means exploring the flipside of our wildest places. 

There are plenty of great paddles on the flipside. 

In paddling the reservoirs on the Raquette, I’m awed by what those earlier generations accomplished. I wonder what legacy current generations will leave. 

A history

Traditional Arts of Upstate New York from 2014 to 2016 conducted an oral history project on the Raquette River dams. They interviewed over a dozen people involved in and impacted by the construction and operation of the dams. 

Lawrence Mousaw joined his older brother Wiliam on dam construction. William Mousaw worked on every powerhouse built on the Raquette from 1952 to 1957. Lawrence joined him in the summer of 1955 after graduating high school. He worked as a carpenter’s helper, gophering nails, tools and timbers as needed.  

Lawrence made $1.25 an hour.

“It was awful muddy,” he said in an oral history interview.

 Starting at Piercefield about 15 miles northwest of Tupper Lake, and including the storage-only structures at Carry Falls, 21 hydropower dams line the Raquette River.

So back to that math problem. The powerhouses and their turbines, many 75 years or older, in 2024 generated around 935 gigawatt-hours of energy combined — or enough electricity to power as many as 100,000 New York homes.

Nine research sessions disappeared from the agenda of one of the nation’s most important early childhood education conferences less than a week before it was set to begin after an unprecedented intervention by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the conference sponsor. 

The removals affected almost a fifth of the 48 sessions at the three-day National Research Conference on Early Childhood in Arlington, Virginia, scheduled to start tomorrow. 

Researchers said they were notified by email on June 16 that their sessions had been removed during HHS’s final review of the conference agenda. The cancellations are unusual because the presentations had been selected months earlier through a peer-review process after proposals were submitted last fall. Presenters were told only that “several revisions were required” as part of the department’s clearance process. A significantly revised conference agenda was posted on June 17, replacing the old one. 

The last-minute removals have rattled researchers in the field, many of whom said they had never seen accepted conference sessions withdrawn so close to a major meeting’s start date. The cancelled presentations span topics from childcare licensing and kindergarten transitions to infant mental health and social-emotional development. 

“It has been deeply disappointing and disheartening,” said Lieny Jeon, an associate professor at the University of Virginia whose session on improving the early childhood workforce was among those removed. “We value opportunities to share evidence that can inform policy and practice, and it has been discouraging to have those opportunities unexpectedly removed.”

One cancelled session examined state efforts to expand access to early childhood education. Another explored administrative burdens faced by child care providers. A third focused on building evidence for “continuous quality improvement” in early childhood programs — an ironic casualty, given the Trump administration’s stated desire to bring more business know-how to the public sector. 

The cancelled sessions affected nearly 40 presenters who hail from universities, nonprofit research organizations and government agencies, including Yale University, the University of Alabama, Child Trends, the Urban Institute, the Office of Head Start within HHS, and several state early childhood agencies. 

Researchers who sought additional information from HHS on why their panels had been canceled said they received none. In a response reviewed by The Hechinger Report, conference organizers wrote that the HHS clearance process was “complete,” the agenda was “final,” and they could not provide “any additional information.” The cancelled researchers, however, were still encouraged to attend the conference. 

HHS and its early childhood division, the Administration for Children and Families, which sponsors the conference, did not respond to questions over the weekend about why the sessions were removed or what criteria were used.

The cancellations have fueled concern about political interference in research, though no clear pattern emerged among the deleted sessions. Some involved Head Start, the federal preschool program that the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, proposed to eliminate in its Project 2025 blueprint for the Trump administration. Others touched upon dual language instruction and social-emotional learning, both frequent targets of conservative activists. Yet similar topics remain on the agenda, making it difficult to identify a consistent rationale. A session on improving home visits for Native American families also remains on the schedule.

Several researchers said they were reluctant to criticize the administration publicly because they rely on federal grants or work for institutions that receive federal funding. 

The conference occupies an unusual place in the education research landscape. Held every two years, it is one of the field’s most important meetings, known for gathering research luminaries and including policymakers in the discussions. Because the conference is federally funded, attendance is free, and that draws early childhood educators, creating a rare forum for direct exchange between researchers and practitioners. 

The conference falls under HHS because Head Start and other early childhood social welfare programs remained within the federal health and human services bureaucracy when the Education Department was created in 1979. 

This year’s conference was already notably different from previous gatherings. Topics such as immigrant children and systemic racism that have drawn scrutiny from the Trump administration were absent from the program even before the latest cancellations.

“I think everybody probably in writing their proposals knew to sanitize their language proactively,” said Kate Zinsser, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, who was not affected by the cancellations but is planning to attend the conference and has been in contact with the cancelled researchers. “But these are not radical sessions, these are seemingly run-of-the-mill research presentations that are receiving this kind of scrutiny and censoring.”

Contact staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or barshay@hechingerreport.org.

This story about early childhood education research was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

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Trout Unlimited and the state Department of Environmental Conservation hope to reconnect more than 40 miles of brook trout habitat in the Moose River Plains with a plan to replace dozens of undersized culverts.

Construction work started this week, DEC announced in a press release. It will require some campsite closures along the Limekiln Lake-Cedar River Road primitive camping corridor. Access to the Moose River Plains Camping Area will be closed from the Cedar River Flow entrance on the road’s eastern end. Campsites 1-20 will be closed. Access to the road and other campsites from the western Limekiln Lake end in Inlet will remain open. 

The project

The overall project will aim to replace more than 50 culverts in the next three to five years. This will reconnect 43 miles of brook trout habitat, according to the DEC release.

“This work will reduce habitat fragmentation and improve access to cold clean water for native Eastern brook trout,” Tracy Brown, Trout Unlimited New York program director, said in the release.

The Cedar River Flow headquarters to Campsite 20 will be closed through July 3 for culvert replacement, according to DEC. The release cautioned visitors to avoid construction.

Improving habitats

Undersized culverts in brook trout watersheds are a major impediment to extending the fish species’ habitat. Especially as warming weather forces them to seek out cooler waters. Conservation groups around the Adirondack Park in recent years have worked to prioritize and replace undersized culverts with the goal of improving connectivity on Adirondack streams for fish and other aquatic organisms.

The Nature Conservancy, which manages a database of culverts and other barriers impeding fish habitat, has worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove barriers and improve riparian habitat along Cold Brook, a key tributary for salmon restoration on the Boquet River. The Ausable Freshwater Center has also worked to replace undersized culverts in the Ausable watershed and around the park. 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Like many families, Jessica and Adrian Garcia, who live in the mountain resort town of Ruidoso, had to cobble together different child care options for their son when they returned to work after his birth in 2023.

In August 2021, New Mexico expanded subsidized free child care to households earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty line — at the time, $87,840 for a family of three. The Garcias earned too much to qualify.

Jessica, who works at the local branch of Eastern New Mexico University, and Adrian, a police officer, settled for a part-time day care schedule two days a week that cost $300 a month for their son to attend daycare two days a week because they couldn’t afford full-time hours. Jessica’s mother also pitched in to help. At the time, Adrian had to bargain constantly with his boss to juggle graveyard shifts and child care, and if his schedule changed, his wife and mother-in-law both had to rearrange their own work on short notice to accommodate his.

Before long, Jessica received an ultimatum from her job: If she couldn’t work full-time hours consistently, she would be demoted to a part-time position and lose the family’s health insurance benefits.

Their luck turned last November when New Mexico became the first state in the country to launch free, universal child care for children from birth through age 13, regardless of household income. The expansion to a truly universal program “was just a big blessing to us,” said Jessica, who was able to enroll her son in full-time care. “It’s been a huge help.”

New Mexico garnered a wave of attention when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced in September that all of the state’s families would be eligible for child care assistance. “Child care is essential to family stability, workforce participation, and New Mexico’s future prosperity,” she said at the time. 

In March 2026,  requirements for the program shifted. Families earning up to 600 percent of the federal poverty line are now eligible for free child care without copays, the equivalent of a four-person family earning $198,000 annually. Copays beyond that threshold are also contingent on if the price of oil decreases.  Participating families can choose from a wide range of options, including center-based care, home-based providers, before- and after-school care, and faith-based centers. On average, the universal program is expected to save participating families $12,000 a year. (Private providers still have the option to not serve families receiving child care assistance and continue to charge tuition.) 

What has received less attention outside New Mexico, however, is the state’s attempt to fairly compensate the long underappreciated and underpaid early childhood workforce.

Because the state is now in charge of early education through the universal program, it has also stepped into the role of being responsible for child care wages. It has had to decide questions such as how to weigh experience against education in child care wages, how to financially incentivize centers to adopt rigorous measures of quality and a whole host of issues that have typically been left to the market. 

But the child care “market,” as it currently exists in other states, has primarily produced poverty wages for workers and exorbitant costs for families. There’s a hope that if New Mexico can iron out these issues, it can lead the way for other places that might want to implement a universal program, such as New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced earlier this year that the city will create 2,000 free child care slots for 2-year-olds in the city on its way to scaling up a universal and free program for all young children, but the city would need 30,000 new child care workers to make that work. 

New Mexico has currently set aside $60 million for increased wages for the state’s child care workforce. A working group is now refining a “wage scale and career lattice framework” intended to support experience, education and quality. 

“It’s so exciting to see New Mexico grapple with these questions,” said Lena Bilik, a senior program manager at the Roosevelt Institute, a left-leaning think tank that advocates for universal child care. “Other countries have realized this is a place where the government has to step in. If you’re going to expand your system, you can’t do it without increasing wages. That’s starting to be a bigger conversation.”

Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

Child care providers and advocates in the state have different opinions about the efforts thus far. 

Barbara Luna Tedrow, a child care center owner in Farmington, first opened her business, A Gold Star Academy, over 25 years ago with 60 children and 10 staff members. Farmington is oil and gas country surrounded by badlands and grayish sands. It’s also just outside of Navajo Nation, making it a border town with a significant Native American population. 

Around 2012, Tedrow was approached by an oil field worker — New Mexico is the nation’s second-largest producer of oil — who offered to finance the construction of a second child care center. Over the next decade, grant funding and solid relationships with city officials helped her expand to five branches. Now, her team cares for 700 children, with 400 of those slots opened up in the past three years alone. Part of her success, she said, is because she worked to advocate for child care as a means of complementing oil and gas jobs.

“If you want cities to flourish, they need high-quality child care,” she said. “All of these new employees want to go to work, but they can’t without it.”

Tedrow’s employees receive medical, vision and dental insurance as well as a 401(k) retirement program, which together cost $15,000 per employee on top of their salary. Therefore, Tedrow said she worries about what might happen if state reimbursement rates decline in the future or if the state increases the minimum wage for employees without increasing the state reimbursement along with it. 

“We’re dependent on the state for wages, benefits and everything else to run a high-quality child care center,” she said. 

Mirna Polendo, the director of Imagination Station, a Christian preschool in the mountain resort town of Ruidoso, made some changes to her program when the state moved to a universal system. New Mexico pays enhanced rates to centers that are open at least 10 hours a day and that pay increased wages to teachers. Polendo extended her hours from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and bumped employee wages to $17 an hour to qualify for more state reimbursement. 

In return, Polendo receives $1,400 per month from the state to care for an 18-month-old infant, $1,075 for a toddler and $890 for kids ages 3 to 5. Across the board, the state reimburses more for care than private tuition ever did. 

If her center meets certain quality measures, the state reimbursements could be even higher. But one of those quality measures would require her to bump staff wages up to $18 an hour. That is right on the borderline of what Polendo can afford to pay staff while remaining in the black, she said — “I can’t do higher than that.” 

Olga Grays, a home daycare provider in Las Cruces, has worked as an early childhood educator for 20 years and is licensed to care for up to 12 kids at a time in her home. In her backyard and garden area, vibrant streams of papel picado — colored paper with intricate perforated designs — are taped up across the shaded patio. Colorful play structures and swings are a few steps away. The setup feels so personal, which Grays credits to the nature of the business. 

“Home daycares have this connection with parents that a lot of centers can’t,” she said. Some days, Grays opens up at 4 a.m. to accommodate a family, and closes as late as 11 p.m. 

Grays has to pay her employees $16 an hour to accept state subsidies and has chosen at this time not to make the changes to her business that would unlock larger reimbursement from the state. 

“I’d rather spend my time in daycare with children providing the services they need,” she said. “I don’t believe that taking the time out to do that paperwork will help them.”

But that means that any of her employees could leave for another center that is paying more, she said. She supports linking wages to years of experience and educational attainments instead of focusing solely on a center’s quality metrics.  

While the work that remains is complex, that should not overshadow the years of effort and advocacy that it took for the state to reach this point, said Jacob Vigil, the chief legislative officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, a state advocacy group. 

“It took over a decade for us to get here,” Vigil said. “It was a campaign that was broad based and that had a diverse base of folks that really understood and coalesced around the messaging of why early childhood is important.” 

Contact editor Christina Samuels at 212-678-3635 or samuels@hechingerreport.org

This story about universal child care was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.  

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As the governmental agency running Olympic facilities in the Adirondack Park gears up for its third year of mountain bike races in Lake Placid and Wilmington, officials say the races are coming to an end after this fall.

Amid controversy over its right to hold such cycling competitions within the state forest preserve, the Olympic Regional Development Authority decided to discontinue the races after completing the three-year contract it signed to allow the competitions on skiing trails, said ORDA Chair Joe Martens.

The authority board voted in December 2023 to stage the races in 2024, 2025 and 2026 under a contract with Union Cycliste Internationale. UCI owns the rights and license to the Mountain Bike World Series. It had transferred those rights to Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Events Limited.

“We are always evaluating our events to make sure they’re delivering strong regional impact, meaningful exposure and alignment with our mission and where we are headed,” Martens said. “After going through that process, we’ve decided not to renew the UCI contract this year.”

The events came with great expense — substantial hosting fees, costs to construct and take down the temporary tracks built for world-class mountain bike races and consultant bills. Getting sponsorships proved challenging.

The races began in 2024 as strictly cross-country biking competitions at Mount Van Hoevenberg, and expanded to downhill racing on Whiteface Mountain last fall.

Controversy in 2025

The downhill event in 2025 drew more spectators but also caused trouble for ORDA as it built the Whiteface racetrack without getting its work plan approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). 

The DEC issued a rare notice of violation to its sister agency and the environmental group Protect the Adirondacks accused ORDA of harming the natural terrain of a mountain that New York voters had never authorized to be used for bike races.

After spending more than $860,000 to put on three days of mountain bike races in the fall of 2025, the authority brought in less than $300,000 in revenue from ticket sales and parking from the downhill and cross-country cycling competitions, records show.

The baseline costs for hosting the UCI event required ORDA to make payments of $420,000 to $500,000 a year for the rights to put on the races.

ORDA weighed costs versus benefits and decided three years was enough for now. But ORDA could revisit the matter in future years, Martens indicated.

“We have a great relationship with UCI and are actively staying in touch about what future opportunities might look like,” he said.

Plans for 2026

The plans for the upcoming third year of hosting the races are already drawing criticism, particularly plans for the Whiteface downhill racetrack.

The design laid out, according to a draft plan posted by the DEC on May 13, calls for building a 7,090-foot course with a total vertical drop of 1,650 feet. 

Along the race course, a boundary of up to 20 feet will be designated for spectators. ORDA plans a buffer area outside the course corridor to protect the woodlands.

Within the course boundary, ORDA proposes developing temporary features — a variety of berms and jumps. 

ORDA officials declined to discuss the plan.

Protect the Adirondacks wrote in a comment letter that the mountain bike tracks are not authorized under exemptions to the “forever wild” provisions of the state Constitution, also known as Article 14, previously approved by voters, and shouldn’t be allowed without a constitutional amendment.

“When the People of the State of New York approved the constitutional amendments to Article 14 … for the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in 1941 and 1987, they did so to approve a downhill alpine ski area and not a summertime mountain bike racecourse,” Protect the Adirondacks wrote.

ORDA’s work plan states that the unit management plan for Whiteface states that mountain biking in the non-ski season, both recreationally and for racing, could be planned.

Restoration work continues

Protect the Adirondacks also pointed out that ORDA has yet to reveal how it is dealing with its unauthorized cutting of trees to build its 2025 racetrack.

ORDA has said that it took down some trees in 2025 for the downhill track, adding some of the trees removed were sick or dead.

 Protect the Adirondacks Executive Director Claudia Braymer said trees may be harmed now by last year’s movement of rocks and soil onto their bases and called for removing those piles to help trees recover.

The violations DEC cited last year resulted in the regional DEC director calling for five items for ORDA to accomplish. The authority was required to take several steps to remediate the mountain after the races and to improve communications and oversight of environmental rules.

After many months of advertising, ORDA recently accomplished one of the directives. It hired a staffer who can assure legal compliance with the environmental rules of the Adirondack Park Agency and DEC, said Darcy Norfolk, ORDA’s communications director.

DEC officials said ORDA continues to work on other items of the five-point requirement list, including developing a restoration plan that will bring all trails that exceed either the existing mountain bike guidance or the approved constitutional ski trails into conformance with standards.

“The Olympic Authority will complete restoration work this summer on portions of the Stag Brook Falls hiking trail modified for the 2025 downhill mountain bike course and will not use the hiking trail for the 2026 course,” DEC said.

The proposed work plan for 2026 says ORDA plans a downhill course to follow only established ski glades, ski trails and designated mountain bike trails.

The comment period on the work plan ended May 27 with only Protect the Adirondacks giving input.

DEC is expected to eventually publish a final work plan.

ORDA scheduled the races for Oct. 2-4. Its work plan says 200 to 250 men and women downhill racers will train, qualify and compete over 11 days in September through Oct. 4. 

The adults stepped aside. So, the kids stepped up. And the annual Pride celebration in Red Hook came off on Sunday without a hitch, with a turnout in the hundreds, booths galore, a live band, and a parade of dogs and humans sporting every color of the rainbow.

“Red Hook needs some good community bonding and celebrating for this really beautiful month honoring everyone,” said Violet, one of three Red Hook High School juniors who helped organize the event. “We just thought it would really be a shame not to celebrate.”

One of her co-partners in planning, Harper, agreed. “Our goal is to make sure that everyone in our community feels accepted and heard and seen as well as safe and happy here,” said Harper.

Co-organizer Ada agreed. “We found a path forward, and just looking out at everyone who showed up feels amazing,” she said.

The girls began planning almost immediately after BeckHook Pride confirmed in March that it would not host the celebration this year, after three years of events in both Red Hook and Rhinebeck, site of the first Northern Dutchess event in 2023. BeckHook, which is dissolving as a standalone nonprofit and merging with the Dutchess County Pride Center, cited a lack of volunteers.

The girls approached the task of staging the event by turning to community leaders and previous BeckHook Pride organizers, while leaning on their own grit and common sense. They sought guidance from Amy Smith, Chair of the Village Events Committee for the past five years and former Red Hook Village Board member, and Jeung-il Tsumagari, Program Director at the Red Hook Community Center, on how to procure an insurance certificate, police support, a band, and vendors. Marie-Michelle Mugnos, BeckHook Pride President, also assisted, the girls said.

“I was delighted when they reached out about doing something for Pride,” said Smith. “Violet, Ada, and Harper worked very hard to bring it all together.”

Debbie Hecht, Vice President of BeckHook Pride, said she was touched by the juniors’ work in taking charge of the event. “I’m so thrilled,” she told The Daily Catch Sunday. “The kids did such an amazing thing for our community. It’s fantastic and beyond moving to see young people taking such an active role in Pride.”

As the parade unfolded just after 11:45 a.m., families and citizens arrayed along West Market Street spoke of their delight at the event. “I think it’s important to show our family that there’s a community that supports us and there are other families like us,” said Maxine Coleman, who, with her wife, Kris Peterson, is mom to five kids. The couple, who have been together for nine years, was married two years ago, on a Pride celebration day.

Several attendees said the event, which billed itself as Red Hook Youth Pride, was especially important for young people. “For this community to have this moment of inclusivity, love, and acceptance is especially important for the youth,” said Cassandra Dunbar Ruff, who attended with her wife, Kara Dunbar Ruff; her niece, Etta Shafer; and their dog, Stevie Nicks.

Winter Hubbell, who graduated from Red Hook High School in 2024, attended Sunday’s festival with Eva Sasvary, Class of 2025, and recalled a Pride event some years ago when she was in sixth grade. Winter, who identifies as bisexual, said she walked on a sidewalk carrying a flag. “We’ve come such a long way, with the community really embracing us and accepting us now,” she said. “Red Hook is just a very welcome space.”

Community activist Cat Viega’s 8-year-old daughter, Addie, was adorned as a rainbow butterfly. Her mom lauded the youth leaders who put on the event. “It’s really amazing that young people put this on, and the community solidarity behind this day is amazing,” Viega said.

Parents of the organizers said they were delightfully surprised by what the girls accomplished. “I had no idea they had all this put together,” said Erin McMillan. “I’m so proud of them.”

Dutchess County Legislator Kristofer Munn’s son, Isaac, also applauded the organizers as he walked arm in arm with his partner, Kiersten. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said.

David Tavarez of Rhinebeck came with Lola, his dog, adorned in a rainbow covering. “We’re here to celebrate Pride, diversity, freedom, and individuality,” he said. “A great day.”

[See image gallery at www.thedailycatch.org]

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Update 06/07/2026: This article was updated to include the $145,000 payment the City of Ithaca will make in 2027 to Urban Encore, LLC to terminate its lease with the company.

ITHACA, N.Y. — The City of Ithaca will spend $530,000 in 2026 to terminate a lease for office space it never moved into.

After emerging from a closed-door meeting Wednesday, Common Council unanimously voted to terminate a lease for office space at 123 S. Cayuga St., which neighbors city hall. Less than a year and a half after the lease was signed, city leaders said they decided to end the agreement because the site no longer appeared to be a financially viable long-term solution to the city’s office needs.

Council authorized Acting City Manager Dominick Recckio to terminate the lease and pay $530,000 in 2026 in accordance with the agreement. A draft of the lease termination contract stated that the city will pay an additional $145,000 by Jan. 27, 2027 as a part of the agreement. 

The Ithaca Voice has filed a records request with the City of Ithaca for the lease. 

The building was first proposed as a space for city offices to expand in late 2024 during the 2025 budget process. At the time, former City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff recommended the location to alleviate a cramped City Hall. 

She said at the time that city employees needed more space, and 123 S. Cayuga St. was already connected to City Hall’s second and third floors through two sky bridges. Mohlenhoff, who council asked to resign at the end of 2025, presented the building as an obvious solution.

Council gave the Mohlenhoff the green light to pursue an agreement. City officials signed a  20-year lease with Urban Encore, LLC on Feb. 27, 2025, according to the resolution council passed to end the agreement. 

Mohelnoff did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. 

Mayor Robert Cantelmo said in a statement to The Ithaca Voice that the city is exiting the lease now because officials “came to realize it’s not the right office space or financially viable fit for our operations.”

Moving city employees into  the space would also create additional security needs, Cantelmo said. He added that the city has begun to plan for a long-term solution to acquire its own facilities.

Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed that the office space at 123 S. Cayuga St. was not yet ready for city staff to move in and that there was no mandatory timeline in the lease for it to be ready by a certain date. 

The building is owned by Urban Encore, LLC, a subsidiary of the development and real estate company Urban Core, LLC headed by local businessman John Guttridge. 

Guttridge said in an interview Friday that his relationship with everyone at the city has been “very professional” and added that “they were great to work with.”

Guttridge said that he began working with the city to plan its move into the space around the time the lease was signed in February 2025.

“We were working on plans to get them into the building and then they made a different decision,” Guttridge said.

---

Disclosure: The reporter briefly worked for Urban Core, LLC as a contractor in 2025. The reporter has no ongoing financial relationship with Urban Core, LLC. 

Correction 06/07/2026: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that 123 S. Cayuga St. is owned by Urban Core, LLC. It is owned by Urban Encore, LLC, a subsidiary of Urban

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Red Hook High School will remain closed through the end of the school year after new air quality testing on Friday evening revealed above-average levels of soot and char, the School District announced Saturday.

Virtual learning will continue through June 16, the last day of school, the district said. Efforts have been made to move classes to Bard College but the district could not conceive a plan to do so, given the number of classes and the total number of students, approximately 550 in all, that need to be accommodated.

“This is not the news we hoped we would be conveying as we awaited our air quality testing results, and we share in your disappointment that these measures must be taken,” the district said in a Facebook announcement that was not signed by any district official. “We will continue to keep families apprised of all developments as this important work of finishing the school year successfully continues.”

The district has employed an outside cleaning company, Advanced Disaster Recovery Inc. of New Hampton, N.Y., following a 10:15 a.m. bathroom fire on Friday, May 29, for which a 16-year-old student has been charged with arson.

Soot and char are two of the most common residues left behind after a fire. Soot consists of microscopic carbon particles and other byproducts of incomplete combustion that can be carried throughout a building by smoke and air currents. Char is the blackened, carbonized material left on surfaces that have been exposed to heat or flame. Both can settle on walls, ceilings, floors, furnishings and inside heating and ventilation systems.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fine particles from smoke can remain indoors long after a fire has been extinguished, affecting indoor air quality if they are not properly removed. Those particles can become airborne again when disturbed by foot traffic, cleaning or air circulation, increasing the potential for occupants to inhale them.

Because of that, post-fire remediation typically involves more than removing visible smoke damage or odors. Environmental professionals often conduct extensive cleaning, replace materials that cannot be adequately decontaminated and perform air-quality testing to verify that smoke-related particles have been reduced before a building is reoccupied, consistent with EPA guidance on indoor air quality after smoke events.

Plans for Regents exams, which had been scheduled to run starting Tuesday, June 9 and run through June 18, are being revised. They will still be held on the same dates and times, but at alternative locations, the district said. Bus service will be provided, and new details will be communicated on Monday.

The district has not announced if any changes are being made for graduation exercises, which are scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, on the Linden Avenue Middle School lawn.

The district did not announce the specific air quality test results on Saturday but said that deeper analysis of tests made on Tuesday, June 2 showed five of 13 areas tested had above-average levels of soot and char.

As a result, the outside cleaner will be escalating remediation measures in preparation for retesting all areas, the district said. The firm also is conducting further analysis of problem areas, the district said. It did not indicate where those areas are inside the school.

The deeper analysis, the district said, “has also offered important information for evaluating which items located within the building may be able to be returned to students.” Many students have personal belongings that they have not been allowed to retrieve.

Prom is still scheduled for Saturday, June 13. Freshman orientation slated for Tuesday, June 9 has been postponed.The district has posted additional details on its Facebook page and on the website.

The post New Air Quality Findings Keep Red Hook High School Closed Through End of School Year first appeared on The Daily Catch.

WINOOSKI, Vt. — The day’s class started with a writing prompt: Do you feel safe in school? Why or why not? The students — whose families hail from across the globe and speak languages including Arabic, Nepali, Spanish and Somali — wrote their responses before reading them aloud.

“I feel safe in school because I saw the school doors are locked every time,” one student said, “and I heard ICE is not here.” 

“If ICE comes to school, they are not allowed to go in,” said another. 

“ICE can’t come in,” said a third teen. 

The sense of security students feel in this multilingual learner class at Winooski High School is hard-won. Since the start of the second Trump administration, the federal government has investigated schools for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, rescinded a policy protecting students on school grounds from Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests and threatened school districts with the loss of federal funding. Administration officials have also encouraged states to challenge a decades-old Supreme Court decision guaranteeing undocumented students’ right to public schooling, which conservative activists say takes resources from American children.

While many districts have chosen to go quiet or self-censor out of fear of being targeted, the Winooski school system and its superintendent, Wilmer Chavarria, have taken the opposite approach. 

Last year, this small district of about 800 students was the first in Vermont to pass a sanctuary policy aimed at protecting students from immigration enforcement while at school. Then, months later, Chavarria refused to sign a document from the Trump administration saying it is complying with the federal ban on DEI efforts in schools. 

That’s happened even as the district has been affected directly by federal policies. In June of last year, Chavarria, a naturalized citizen, was detained for several hours by immigration officials at the Houston airport while on his way back from visiting family in Nicaragua. Over Thanksgiving break in November, a second grader was detained with his mother by federal agents conducting immigration enforcement. After weeks in a detention center, they left the country. In early December, the Winooski School District was the target of racist messages and phone calls after a video of a student raising the Somali flag on a pole outside the high school went viral on social media.

While there have been no direct threats by the Trump administration to pull Winooski’s federal funding, which accounts for 6 percent of the district’s annual budget, Chavarria said he is preparing for the possibility.

“When somebody wants us to lose funding, we’re going to lose it anyways. The difference is, did we lose it while bending the knee, or did we lose it while standing up for our values?” Chavarria said. “Either way, the outcome will be the same.”

Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.

Nestled along the Winooski River on the outskirts of Burlington, Winooski is the smallest school district by land area in Vermont. This 1.5-square-mile community is the most diverse district in a state that ranks among the whitest in the nation. Nearly 60 percent of students here are people of color, more than a third are learning to speak English, and about 71 percent of students live in poverty.

For more than three decades, the town and neighboring region have been a federal refugee resettlement community, accepting hundreds of immigrants annually who are fleeing conflict from Bhutan, Somalia, Bosnia and Syria, among other countries. Last year, the Trump administration decreased the admissions cap for refugees into the U.S. from 125,000 in 2025 to 7,500 in 2026, the lowest limit for refugee placement since the program’s inception. 

Since then, the number of refugees resettling in the state has been reduced to a trickle. So far, about 50 refugees, all from South Africa, have relocated to Vermont this year. 

Chavarria, 37, joined Winooski schools in 2023 after serving as director of equity and education support systems in another Vermont district. Born in Nicaragua, he didn’t learn English until high school, a background that resembles many of the Winooski students he serves. His actions on behalf of immigrant students have built him widespread support in the community.

“Wilmer has been a brave voice in a time in our country where that’s being punished,” Robin Merritt, a parent of three children in the district, said as she dropped them off on a Tuesday morning in April. “I can’t speak for everybody, but most of the public is pretty proud of his leadership.”

The sanctuary schools policy is a key reason. The guidance formally outlined Winooski’s policy reaffirming that staff will not share student data with immigration officials. It also restricts agents’ access to campus without a signed judicial warrant, among other steps. In May, after advocacy from Chavarria and others, the Vermont Legislature passed a law modeled after Winooski’s policy requiring all schools in the state to have immigration enforcement protocols.

In an emotional district meeting last February, more than three dozen teachers, students and Winooski residents spoke in support of it. 

“I want to know the district has my back,” one staff member said. 

“We are scared. Passing this will help us feel safe and at ease while at school,” a high school student told board members.

Most school board members supported the policy from the outset. But Nicole Mace, the board president, said she worried it would make Winooski a target of federal officials, who have at times singled out sanctuary communities for policies that impede immigration enforcement. 

She was not at the meeting where the policy was approved, in a 4-0 vote. But in the year since, she said she’s learned how much it has meant to families in the district.

“The risk is around us no matter what, and for the district to take a very clear and unwavering position of support for our families and students couldn’t be done with little tweaks in the policy or putting our heads down and hoping that we could just ride this out,” said Mace.

Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, an organization that advocates for the rights of immigrants, said clear policies like this one not only protect students, but also staff, who may not know what immigration agents are allowed to do on school grounds. Her group advocates for all school districts to have such policies, in the same ways schools plan for earthquakes and tornadoes and other emergency situations.

“You want to be able to show that you support all families, including immigrant families, that they ideally should participate and not be afraid of coming to school,” she said. 

Related: School closures are accelerating in rural America. Here’s how a battle over small districts is playing out in one state

A 2022 study found that children from families with mixed citizenship status were more likely to earn A’s and less likely to report problems with their teachers and peers if they attended a school that had a “safe zone” policy restricting immigration enforcement on campus.

“I really see the impact in the classroom,” said Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver, who teaches English and history at Winooski High and was Vermont’s teacher of the year in 2025. “When kids feel seen and heard and valued in our district and community, it shows up in the work they’re doing.”

MacLeod-Bluver is part of a group of teachers in the district who have volunteered to drive or walk students to and from school when they are worried about immigration enforcement in town. 

A desire to reassure immigrant families was also the impetus for Chavarria’s decision to raise the Somali flag on school grounds on Dec. 5, three days after President Donald Trump referred to Somalians as “garbage” in a Cabinet meeting. When a video of the flag went viral on right-wing social media, staff had to temporarily take down the district’s website and social media accounts and unplug school phones because of death threats, hundreds of which were turned over to Vermont State Police and the FBI. 

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said at the time that the threats came from individuals who had nothing to do with the Trump administration. “Aliens who come to our country, complain about how much they hate America, fail to contribute to our economy, and refuse to assimilate into our society should not be here,” she told The Associated Press. “And American schools should fly American flags.”

Despite the onslaught, the staff kept the Somali flag up, beside the U.S. and Vermont flags, through the following week to show support for Somali students, who make up about 9 percent of the school system’s student population. 

Chavarria — who with his husband stayed at a hotel for a few days following the episode after receiving death threats — said he believes if more school leaders publicly and vocally pushed back on Trump administration policies, Winooski wouldn’t be as big of a magnet for people’s hate. 

“It does feel like we are alone in an ocean,” he said. “It is very, very scary. It is draining. It is demoralizing. It’s like a nightmare that you wish one day ends, because you feel like nobody else understands it because nobody else is being attacked the way we are.”

Last spring, the superintendent’s brother and sister-in-law had to leave the U.S. after the Trump administration ended a Biden-era program that allowed eligible Nicaraguans to stay in the country for a two-year period with a sponsor. The family, who had lived with Chavarria as their sponsor, still had time left on their visas when the program was abruptly canceled. When Chavarria was stopped at the Houston airport while he was on his way back from visiting family in Nicaragua, immigration officials searched his devices and interrogated him for nearly five hours, about his marriage and work and citizenship, before releasing him. 

“When I get asked, I advise people that your status doesn’t matter if you’re brown,” said Chavarria, who has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over agents searching his personal and school devices while he was questioned.  

Related: Fear, arrests and know-your-rights: How one school district is grappling with ICE coming to town

Inside the Winooski school building this spring, there were visible traces of the challenges of the last year. Since the deluge of death threats in December, doors separating hallways are locked, requiring a staff member to let students through sections of the building throughout the day. Along the entryway’s walls, dozens of posters and cards from families, students and supporters both near and far carry messages such as, “You belong here,” “You make our community a better place” and “Somali students we stand with you.”  

A table with “Know your rights” and “Conoce tus derechos” emblazoned across a banner sits off to the side, with documents translated into more than half a dozen languages telling families how to organize their documents and talk to children about ICE, along with papers they can hand immigration agents explaining their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.

Still, outside of school walls, the district has not been able to keep all students safe. In the weeks following the second grader’s detention in November, teachers wrote letters of support appealing to immigration officials and organized a fundraiser for emergency resources and legal fees. Erin Hurley, a multilingual teacher who taught the boy, said detention center officials denied her request to send his school work to him. 

During phone calls, the mother told Winooski staff that her son wasn’t doing well at the detention center in Dilley, Texas, due to lack of edible food, clean water and medical care. After seven weeks in Dilley, and despite having a lawyer fighting for their release, the family decided to self-deport.

In the last year, Hurley and other staff members at the school district have volunteered to be temporary guardians for several students whose parents worry about being detained. 

“I feel so disgusted that our country has come to this. These families make our community so much brighter. They contribute to Vermont so much,” Hurley said.

In March, protests erupted in nearby South Burlington when immigration agents detained three people at a house, none of whom were the man agents had a warrant for. 

A high school student in Winooski — whose family members are Nepali immigrants and whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy — saw videos of the arrests and protest online. She said she appreciated that the Winooski School District sent out a message alerting families about the incident. The sanctuary schools policy has made her and her mother feel safe while she is at school, the student said. And she hopes other districts in Vermont pass similar policies — a requirement under the new state law, starting next year.

“Right now, it’s only Winooski. Even if they don’t have a lot of students or staff of color, I think it’s really good to make it a sanctuary school, still. Because there might be one or two students that it would be really helpful,” said the student. 

Back in Winooski High School’s multilingual learners class, their teacher, Becky Savage, turned to a new topic: Astronauts aboard Artemis II had just released photos from the far side of the moon, the farthest any human has ever traveled from Earth. She pulled the images up on screen for the class to see.

They had a million questions. Is that photo artificial intelligence? How do the astronauts have access to the internet? Why didn’t they land on the moon?

For a few minutes, their thoughts were 250,000 miles away. Then, it was time to practice reading and writing in English again.

Contact staff writer Ariel Gilreath on Signal at arielgilreath.46 or at gilreath@hechingerreport.org.

This story about Winooski was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

The post This school district has received death threats for standing up for immigrants. It’s not backing down appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

State budget language included in the FY27 Aid to Localities Appropriation bill provides funding for two organizations focused on protecting the Upper Delaware River: Friends of the Upper Delaware River (FUDR) and the Upper Delaware Council (UDC).

The 73.4-mile Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, which runs along the New York and Pennsylvania border, is a major natural and recreational resource and an economic driver for the region. According to the announcement, the two organizations submitted a joint request for $550,000 in operational funding to support continued conservation, restoration and management efforts.

The UDC was established in 1988 as part of a formal partnership between local, state and federal entities under the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River Management Plan. FUDR has also previously received state grant funding. The new budget includes additional support intended to strengthen both groups’ ongoing environmental and stewardship work.

Assembly Member Paula Kay (District 100) said the funding reflects the importance of natural resources to the region.

“The water we drink, the air we breath, and the landscapes that truly take our breath away are what makes Sullivan County and Upstate New York so incredible. They drive our tourism, and improve our physical and mental health daily and its thanks to organizations like FUDR and UDC. I fought for these two organizations to get this funding, because I know the work that they do and how much of an asset they are to New York State and I am thrilled that my colleagues in the legislature and Governor Hochul agree with me.”

Upper Delaware Council Executive Director Laurie Ramie credited Kay’s advocacy for securing funding.

“Assembly Member Kay pledged to be our champion and catalyst for New York State to fulfill its fiscal obligation for the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River’s management and maintenance, and she absolutely came through for us! Paula has referred to the Upper Delaware Council’s work as proof of the importance of community organization and collaboration to care for land, water, and people,” Ramie said. “This first-ever state operational funding will enable the UDC to enhance its value and impact in the river valley after struggling to survive on flat federal funding since 1988, with neither state providing their intended 20% shares despite signing on to the 1986 River Management Plan. Now it’s time to challenge the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to follow New York State’s lead. We are grateful for Paula’s effective and committed advocacy, and excited for the future.”

Friends of the Upper Delaware River Executive Director Molly Oliver also praised the funding.

“We are deeply grateful to Assembly Member Kay for her leadership and commitment to the Upper Delaware River and the communities that depend on it. This funding represents a meaningful investment in clean water, healthy habitat for fish and wildlife, outdoor recreation, and the local economies that are so closely tied to the river. FUDR is proud to work alongside the Upper Delaware Council, our many other local partners, and New York State to ensure this nationally significant resource is protected, restored, and sustained for generations to come.”

Image Credit: iloveny.com

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