This year, Calais Elementary School held its first mock town meeting, but it wasn't really mock — because a decision of consequence was made that day.
On the ballot was one important question: Where shall the student body of Calais Elementary elect to go on a field trip this spring? There were four choices. After a good deal of debate, they chose.
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for clarity and concision.
Teegan Dykeman-Brown: We have this tradition of town meeting, and I know there aren't that many kids who come to our town meeting, and I wanted kids to get a better sense of what it was to be more interested in it.
We just had this huge vote in town about whether or not to close the school, and I think a lot of kids heard more about voting and what how voting works, and what is it for than they maybe have in the past from their parents. And I feel like this year, of all years, when they talked about closing the school, they probably do feel like they're kind of getting yanked around by the adults, and they're not getting to make decisions. So the fact that we are allowing them to have a process by which they can make a decision about their education, whatever that looks like. I think that's valuable.
Erica Heilman: And it's been a long winter.
Teegan Dykeman-Brown: It's been a long, cold winter. There's been a lot of indoor recess this year, yeah.
Erica Heilman: The entire student body of Calais Elementary assembled in the gym — all 98 of them. Five kids agreed to be select board members and sat at folding tables in the front of the room. They were not exhausted. They did not have those long-suffering faces, which we are all familiar with, and appreciate. But in every other way, the select board performed their roles perfectly. Calais School Principal Jarrod Weiss welcomed the assembled, then handed things off to longtime Calais Town Moderator Gus Seelig.
Gus Seelig: Good morning, everybody. I'm going to start by talking a little bit about the rules of town meeting. Town meeting is democracy in action, and that's a pretty special thing — and it's at a much more human level, because we don't just vote, we talk to each other, and we argue with each other.
And one of the things I say at town meeting is we walk in here as friends and neighbors, and hopefully we're still going to be neighbors when we walk out. I hope we're also going to be friends. And we have to remember that even when we strongly disagree with somebody, they're our neighbors. The person who you have a big fight with the town meeting may be the same person who pulls you out of the ditch that you slid off into when you left town meeting, and or might be the person on the fire department or the ambulance squad who shows up at your house in a time of trouble.
So one of the rules of town meeting is that you don't, even if you strongly disagree with somebody, you don't say, "Sam, you're being stupid." That's against the rules. You're not allowed to use words that are really explosive, and you're supposed to talk to the moderator, and the idea of talking to the moderator is to not make it personal. So we're now going to go into the question in front of you, and the question in front of you is, what field trip you're going to go on. So let's start with and see who wants to make an argument for one of the four field trips. Okay, we have this young woman in front.
Frances: My name is Frances. I think we should go to ECHO, because if you want to learn about Champ the sea monster, or other monsters in general, it would be a great place to go.
Liam: My name is Liam, and I'm here to speak in favor of Shelburne Museum. I think it's the best choice because there's lots of space and it's a good experience for all ages, and they have a big ship, and it has a carousel and a train station with a train still there, and the carousel, you can ride on it, and it has a mini circus.
Erica Heilman: At this point in the meeting, we started hearing from some of the pragmatists in town.
Hazel: My name is Hazel. I would like to speak in favor of Shelburne Museum. I think it's the best choice because pre-K can go and they don't normally get to.
Henry: My name is Henry, and I want to speak in favor of ECHO. I think it's the best choice because it's close, cheap, and there's a lot of history and science you can learn.
Liam: Is it OK if I just say an extra thing about Shelburne? ... It also has this big ship and has this, like, restaurant in it. And it's outside. You can go into stuff, take rest breaks, you get a lot of vitamin D, it's a lot of exercise. And I just wanted to ask, did you ever — like when you went to ECHO, just you, but have you ever gone with a whole school, like almost 100 kids? There won't be much space in ECHO. And Shelburne, it's all outside, and it's really big. So and you can go into groups. You can be with your friends.
Frances: ECHO does have much space. It is rather large, also it does have ice cream.
Erica Heilman: Ice cream was a compelling argument, and maybe it just came too late in the discussion. In the end, the kids voted in favor of vitamin D and Shelburne Museum. I checked in one last time with Francis.
Erica Heilman [to Frances]: So it did not go your way.
Frances: Yeah, that was really my least favorite option, too.
Erica Heilman: Oh, is that right? The Shelburne Museum, tell me why.
Frances: There's not gonna be that much protection from heat or rain depending on the weather.
Erica Heilman: OK, so alright, you made your points. You made them well. Are you disappointed?
Frances: Yes.
Erica Heilman: And how do you manage that? What do you do now?
Frances: Oh, just move on.
More from Vermont Public: Your guide to Vermont's Town Meeting Day tradition in 2026
