LRUHS is about to get a whole lot more money and the best way to spend it has been decided. The VT house of Representatives just passed a bill where the base per pupil spending is about $15,000, LRUHS currently has a per pupil spending of $13,500. There also is expected to be a reduction in staff at LR, and that on top of the savings that the BAGS Group created will be about 2.4 million dollars. The only logical thing to do is to take existing infrastructure and level it up. Recently the school dug a bunch of ponds. These ponds, along with the science pond in the woods will be repurposed into snow storage areas. This is needed as LRUHS has a nordic ski team that is growing at an exponential rate. Not only has participation in the winter snowsport gone up 500% in three years, with no team existing before 2022 since the late 90s or early 2000s, but this team has had success at the statewide and regional levels.
The pilot stage will just use the ponds that were originally designed for runoff to store snow. It will also use the funds for FY26 to purchase a piston bully snow groomer so that the snow can be groomed to a professional level that is deserved of an area of the state that has produced Olympians in the sport of cross country skiing for decades. There will also need to be an investment in snow guns to make the snow in the winter so it doesn’t need to be pushed into the ponds, a ten wheeler truck so that the snow can be trucked out, and a large excavator to move the snow from the pit into the ten wheeler. The BASICS team is projecting that the trails in the woods at LR may also need to be widened as this investment may lead to many more people wanting to come skiing at LR.
If everything works out after the pilot stage then the science pond will be drained. While there have been questions about if this will result in a loss of an area of the natural world for students to study, there is an alternative to the learning that currently takes place. Students will be able to study the permafrost that will ensue from many years of snow storage and the efficiency of the wood chips used to protect the snow over the summer to slow the melt. This program may even earn money for the school as they will be one of two places in the entire east that will reliably have snow before Thanksgiving. LR also has the advantage over the Craftsbury Outdoor center that it has many ponds, and so snow can be rolled out at different times from different ponds. This will ensure that even if a bunch melts right after it is brought out of one pond there will be another pond that is still covered and can be used to shore up the loop that is created.
