CVSD Update October 16, 2020

Dear Friends and Families,

We have just completed our first experience with a positive COVID case in our schools While we would have wished not to have any cases - ever - I am so proud to let you know how smoothly it all went. Every part of our plan went as imagined. Kudos to the Williston administration for having their systems in place and being able to provide all of the information being requested by the Vermont Department of Health team. This went a long way towards narrowing the scope of the impact. I’d also like to give a shout-out to the CVSD Reopening Team that mobilized at a moment’s notice on a Sunday afternoon. It feels very reassuring to be part of a team that works well together, and more importantly, is committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure the best possible results for our students, their families, and our faculty and staff. For those of you who read the Williston Observer, I want to point out that the letter we sent to you on Sunday night was written by us. A sub-group of the team spent over an hour considering every line in that letter. We knew how important this first communication was and we wanted to make sure we got it as exactly right as possible. If others used portions of our letter to express the same sentiment, we are fine with that, but we want you all to know how seriously we took the messaging of this information. For those of you who don’t receive the Williston Observer - there was a sentence at the end of a very good report that indicated our letter may have been a form letter that we downloaded. It was not.

We are continuing the process of bringing more students back for in-person instruction. Our kindergarten students have been in for two weeks and everyone involved is thrilled to have them back. I heard from every single K-4 principal about the energy and excitement their presence generated. It has gone very smoothly. On Monday the 19th we will welcome our grades 1 and 2 students for four days of in-person instruction. We’ve been planning for this transition for several weeks and are confident that it will also go very smoothly, I can’t underscore enough how vigilant our teachers and administrators have been around making sure that we are able to follow all of the health and safety guidance. We have full confidence in the practices we have put in place. The following week, if all goes as well as we anticipate, we will be bringing in our grades 3 and 4 students. Again, our plan could be adjusted based on our experiences, our community context, and the greater Vermont context. We will always consider the health and safety of our students first.

Please note the republishing of our School Year Calendar. I say republishing because there will be no additional changes to the calendar that was distributed last spring. In the recent legislative session, the legislature set the number of student days required to 170. Our calendar, as adopted last spring, has 172 student days for our K-8 students and 173 student days for our high school students.

I wish you all good health and a lovely fall weekend!

Elaine Pinckney

CVSD Superintendent

The full newsletter, with additional news, announcements, resources, and reminders can be found at this link.