This story by Lukas Dunford was first published in the Valley News on Nov. 19, 2025.
MONTPELIER — Roslyn Fortin, a fifth-grader from Highgate Elementary, has been named Vermont’s first Kid Governor. More than 1,000 fifth graders across 47 Vermont schools voted this month to elect Roslyn from among the seven finalists, two of which were from the Upper Valley.
Each candidate developed a platform around a single issue, creating three-point plans to address their issues with help from the Secretary of State’s Office.
Roslyn focused on addressing homelessness.
The other six fifth-graders who were on the ballot will serve on the Kid Governor’s cabinet, helping Roslyn address homelessness, according to a Wednesday release from the Secretary of State’s Office.
They also will support each other in advancing their own platforms, which ranged from health care to anti-bullying.
The two Upper Valley fifth-graders on the final ballot, Gaelen McNaughton, 10, representing the Weathersfield School, and Westyn Danforth, 11, of Bradford Elementary School, are now on the cabinet that will have monthly meetings with the Secretary of State’s Office.
In January, the Kid Governor and her cabinet will take their oaths of office during a ceremony at the State House in Montpelier.
In a race that included no Upper Valley candidates, New Hampshire fifth graders elected Liv Crete-Sayer of Boscawen Elementary School to be their state’s Kid Governor. Liv’s platform focused on the dangers of smoking, vaping and drug use, according to a Wednesday news release from New Hampshire Civics, a Concord-based nonprofit that leads the state’s Kid Governor program.
The Kid Governor program, free to participating schools, was created by the nonprofit Connecticut Democracy Center in 2015 to teach kids about state government and civic engagement.
