BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – C&S Wholesale Grocers, A Keene, New Hampshire-based company that is one of the country’s largest food distributors — including a facility in Brattleboro — says layoffs are coming.

It looked like business a usual Monday at C&S Wholesale Grocers in Brattleboro. Trucks were coming and going from the 300,000-square-foot facility. A “now hiring” sign was posted out front, But the company is cutting staff at the Brattleboro location at a minimum.

“Right now, we are looking at less than 50 employees and that would be affected by that — at least based on the information that was shared — and those layoffs wouldn’t occur within the next 45 days,” said Vt. Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington.

C&S supplies food to more than 7,500 supermarkets, military bases, and institutions across the country. At this time, we do not know what jobs are on the chopping block. Harrington says Vermont’s rapid response services have been activated. “Those services include everything from how to access unemployment insurance benefits to what type of supports can we offer for re-employment services,” he said.

They are also partnering with local officials. “We work closely with them to try to bring different tools and different resources,” said Adam Grinold with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. He says they have a new AI-driven tool called the Vermont Employment Pathfinder, which will be available to laid-off workers. “Identify skills — it can help map those skills. It can help match those skills to local job opportunities. That and some training and re-skilling programs can really help start that next chapter.”

Harrington says while job cuts are never a good thing, there are more positions right now open across Vermont than there are people looking to fill them. “When that trajectory changes and there are more individuals who are laid off or unemployed than there are jobs, that is when we will see the market become very tight,” he said.

The current unemployment rate in Windham County is 2.7% and officials say companies are hiring. The ultimate goal is to make sure families do not have to leave the area because they can’t find work.

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The Vermont Air National Guard has deployed more than 200 members to the United States’ Kadena Air Force base in Japan for training and support operations in the Indo-Pacific region, according to a press release.

The deployment, which includes the latest F-35 aircrafts and equipment, is expected to last several months and will include exercises in Japan and area islands.

As a result, there will be fewer local flight operations during that time, the release stated.

“With this latest deployment, more than a third of our Airmen are actively contributing to critical missions worldwide,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Daniel Finnegan in the release, which noted that 50 members had deployed last fall.

Almost 18,000 Americans and more than 4,000 Japanese employees and contractors are stationed at the Kadena Air Base, which is known as the Keystone of the Pacific, according to the website.

F-35 aircrafts assigned to Vermont’s 134th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron touched base in Kadena today, according to a press release from the air base in Japan.

“Our squadron eagerly anticipates the chance to elevate our training by testing ACE (Agile Combat Employment) concepts during this deployment,” said Lt. Col. Trevor Callen in that release. 

The operation includes participating in Cope North, the largest multilateral joint exercise of its kind in the region, to “maintain an open and free Indo-Pacific,” Col. David Deptula said in the release.

“Exercise Cope North is a unique opportunity to work closely with our allied partners,” said  U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Blair, 158th Operations Group Commander, in the Vermont release. “The level of interoperability required during this exercise demonstrates our collective ability to respond to emerging threats and ensure regional stability.”

The personal data of students and staff at several dozen Vermont school districts may have been compromised in a nationwide data breach of a student information system, according to state education officials.

PowerSchool, a California-based company that provides a student information system and cloud software used by 39 school districts in Vermont, told its customers on Tuesday that personal data of students, staff and faculty of school districts throughout the country were hacked, according to officials.

The company serves more than 75% of students in North America, according to a report from TechCrunch, and its software is used by roughly 16,000 customers to support more than 50 million students in the United States.

Schools use the software to manage student records, grades, attendance and enrollment.

It is unclear how many school districts in Vermont were affected by the data breach. Lindsey Hedges, a spokesperson for the state Agency of Education, said in an email that not all of the 39 districts that use PowerSchool were affected, but noted that the agency “will continue to work with districts and remain in contact as the full impact of the incident unfolds.”

Champlain Valley School District was among the affected districts. Adam Bunting, the district’s superintendent, said in a letter to families that “the Agency of Education is actively working with PowerSchool to determine the next steps.”

“We understand that the situation is concerning and will keep you informed as we learn more,” Bunting wrote in the letter.

In a phone interview, Bunting said PowerSchool informed the district that the breached personal information of faculty and staff mainly included things like contact information.

“The information, as far as we understand, does not include things like Social Security numbers,” he said. “The initial information we have is that it’s more about contact information.”

Student information, Bunting said, may include names, address, emails and birthdates.

A spokesperson for PowerSchool, Beth Keebler, said in an emailed statement that the company “is committed to protecting the security and integrity of our applications.”

“We take our responsibility to protect student data privacy and act responsibly as data processors extremely seriously,” the statement reads. “Our priority is to support our customers through this incident and to continue our unrelenting focus on data security.”

TechCrunch reported that hackers successfully breached the company’s school information system, and the company was made aware of the breach on or around December 28.

“As soon as we learned of the incident, we immediately engaged our cybersecurity response protocols and mobilized a cross-functional response team, including senior leadership and third-party cybersecurity experts,” the company’s statement said.

The company said it does not anticipate the data being shared or made public.

Zoie Saunders, Vermont’s secretary of education, said in correspondence to superintendents of the affected districts that the impact of the breach may vary from district to district.

“We understand that this news may be concerning, but please be assured that the agency takes incidents involving student information very seriously and is committed to ensuring that all necessary measures are in place to safeguard it,” she wrote.