Windsor Talks JEDI Committee

By Layla Kalinen
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WINDSOR, VT – Seat terms and a request to add non-voting board/committee members for the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (JEDI) were discussed by Windsor Selectboard members at their regular meeting May 9.

Selectboard member Emma Caffrey requested to continue as a non-voting Selectboard liaison. A non-voting student liaison was appointed to the JEDI as well.

Hudson Ranney, 15, student liaison to the Windsor School Board and an active student at Windsor High School, was appointed as the non-voting liaison.

“My name is Hudson Ranney,” he said. “I go to Windsor High School. I’m a sophomore and I’m currently the student rep to the school board. I want to be involved in JEDI to work with our town on the current social issues. I attended one meeting a couple months ago, but I wasn’t able to make it to the last meeting. I think that our town is looking at a lot of issues and I think representing the students would be a really great way to bring the community together, as we all have different views.”

The Selectboard approved Ranney’s appointment and then moved to reassign terms for the current members and address open seats.

In the last year, the JEDI Committee lost five members. The remaining members have now attempted to iron out issues with the board members’ service terms.

Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh said two seats were resigned by members because of other obligations. The other three vacancies were due to the one-year seats that ended simultaneously just before the last election.

“We had to reappoint people at this week’s meeting,” Marsh said. “Yes, it did appear to fall apart all at once. But, it was because people who were the original force behind the creation of the committee, one by one, were leaving for other obligations. It was more like, ‘we got it off the ground and now it’s running and now I have other things to do.’”

When the JEDI Committee was established, there were two two-year terms, three one-year terms, and two three-year terms.

The Selectboard established the rule on May 9 that a student representative doesn’t have a vote. The remaining five member seats changed to three-year terms and two three-year terms.

Marsh said the Selectboard liaison position is now an impartial consulting role to guide the JEDI Committee on town policy, ordinances and opportunities to serve Windsor.

“The role of the liaison should be specifically to bring the perspective to the JEDI Committee from the Selectboard to the advisory committee that helps troubleshoot potential issues and can say, ‘hey, this is what the Selectboard thinks and if you want to do this, I’m going to tell you right now the majority doesn’t support it’ or they can confirm support, also,” Marsh said.