By Guy Page

Enosburg, the Franklin County home of the Vermont Dairy Festival and the birthplace of Red Sox great Larry Gardner, now has another claim to distinction: vocabulary prowess.

Two Vermont schools were among winners nationwide in the Fall 2025 Vocabulary Bowl, a global competition that saw nearly one million students master more than 5.3 million words.

The Vocabulary Bowl turns vocabulary building into a game, making it fun and rewarding for learners of all ages and abilities, according to organizers Vocabulary.com. Students master words at their own pace using Vocabulary.com’s adaptive technology, earning points for themselves and their schools. Teachers rally their classes by celebrating top scorers and team wins. Every word learned helps develop the reading, writing and communication skills students need for school and beyond.

Enosburg Falls Middle-High School captured Vermont’s top high school honors. Christ the King School in Rutland  led the state’s middle and elementary division, organizers announced this week.

Enosburg students team mastered 1,003 difficult words. Enosburg also won high honors in the last three years. 

The Fall 2025 contest — the largest in the Vocabulary Bowl’s 13-season history — included students from more than 6,000 schools in 120 countries. In the U.S., schools competed in three divisions, with Enosburg Middle-High (379 students) a D-3 school. 

The Vocabulary Bowl measures cumulative word mastery over the course of a season, emphasizing vocabulary growth through classroom-based competition.

Scott Most Popular Governor – still! – The VT GOP announced last week that Morning Consult released its quarterly approval ratings of the Governors of all 50 States. And for the 14th consecutive time, Vermont’s own Governor Phil Scott was named the most popular Governor in the country.

The poll shows Governor Scott enjoys a 74% approval rating, while being the only Governor in the country with less than 20% disapproving of his work. 

“Gov. Scott has the greatest upside, the lowest downside and the biggest margin of any of his peers,” VT GOP Chair Paul Dame said. 

Remove fishing shanties – Vermont state law requires that ice fishing shanties be removed from the ice before the ice weakens according the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. 

The shanty must be removed before the ice becomes unsafe or loses its ability to support the shanty out of the water, or before the last Sunday in March — the 29th this year — whichever comes first.  All contents, debris, wood, and supports must also be removed so they do not become a hazard to navigation in the spring.

Leaving your ice fishing shanty on the ice can result in a fine and points on your license, and shanties may not be left at state fishing access areas.