CCS is Out of This World!

Check out this fantastic photo of Mauritania

The Charlotte Central School 6th graders in Tasha Grey's class are applying their learning about world geography and coordinate grids by participating in a NASA program called the Sally Ride Earthkam (www.earthkam.org).  

Twice each year astronauts on board the International Space Station install a special camera in one of their earth observing windows and students are able to upload requests to take high resolution pictures of the earth below.  In order to successfully "take" a photo, students have to identify the latitude and longitude of a site that is located along the orbital path of the ISS, and then identify the exact second that the ISS will be over that specific location.  We also learn a bit about weather and cloud patterns, as it can be really frustrating to identify a great picture only to discover it's buried under a thick layer of clouds in a low pressure system.

Our challenge for students this year is to take a picture of a common landform such as shorelines, mountains, rivers, etc. on each of the six continents that fall under the ISS orbit.  We expect to take more than 300 pictures during the mission, and as a summary will create a school display that will let other students practice their own skills trying to match the picture and its latitude/longitude coordinates to locations on a large earth map.   

This is 44N 73W from 250 miles up

(aka Swanton, VT)

The coast of Namibia

Specifics About the Budget, part 2

This posting is one of a series of CVSD Board communications about the proposed 2019-2020 school budget.

Article VIII on this year’s ballot asks voters to approve applying some of the district’s fund balance to offset taxes. Because consolidation allows for pooling all revenue and expenses, the district is in a position to draw down cash reserves left over from prior years’ budgets. This article asks voters to authorize the Board of School Directors to assign $500,000 as revenue for the 2019-2020 school year (reducing the tax amount needed to be raised in this year’s budget cycle), assign up to $1,000,000 of the school district's current fund balance to the District’s Construction Fund for facilities repairs and maintenance projects, and assign the remaining balance $1,829,698 as revenue for future budgets.

We have divided the maintenance plan into immediate needs and long term projects. The immediate needs are those that directly affect the health and safety of our students and staff. Article VIII on this year’s ballot asks voters to authorize transferring $1,000,000 of the CVSD reserve account to the construction fund in order to tackle these urgent needs without incurring more debt. Learn more about the 5-year capital improvement plan on our website.

To provide further opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback, we are offering a series of budget information meetings across the CVSD. The list of meetings can be found on the district’s website and you are welcome to attend any presentations that are convenient for you. 

In addition, our budget website page has many resources, including our Annual Report, our FY 2019-2020 Proposed Budget Flyer, and our budget FAQ’s. Hard copies of our Annual Report can be found at each school and town office or can be mailed to you by calling 985-1914. The CVSD Board Budget Meetings were recorded and can be viewed at www.RETN.com. Lastly, email us at CVSDBoard@cvsdvt.org with any questions. 

We encourage all residents in Champlain Valley School District towns to vote either on March 5th or earlier at your town offices.

Standing Together in Times of Intolerance and Conflict

The Racial Alliance Committee, a student organization at CVU, planned and hosted an assembly yesterday. We are sharing two observations below, from Principal Adam Bunting and from the guest speaker, Kesha Ram. 

Adam Bunting:

I would like to thank our entire student body, the Racial Alliance Committee, our faculty/staff, Kesha Ram, and Skylar Nash for engaging in a civil dialogue about issues of race in our community. While RAC had planned the assembly weeks before the recent graffiti at our school, it’s clear CVU students stand together against intolerance and hate--even if perspectives and political stances vary. We encourage open dialogue, active listening, critical thinking, and honesty. In the words of Christel, let’s open the book!

Let’s always meet intolerance with a greater love.

Let’s always meet conflict with communication.

The guest speaker, Kesha Ram, shared this afterward on her Facebook page: 

Today, I witnessed one of the most powerful and healing moments of support and solidarity I have ever seen, and it came from young people. As some folks may know, CVU has had several incidents of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti and language on campus in the past month. The students formed a Racial Action Committee and, along with Principal Bunting, invited me to speak as part of a school wide assembly to address these issues together. I spoke about how inspiring it was that these students saw something that frightened and angered them done by their peers, and chose to respond with a unifying event that invited back in to relationship those who committed the acts, those who laughed about them, those who were indifferent, and those who were hurt. I reminded them that just down the road was the Rokeby Museum where Quakers hundreds of years ago took in fugitive slaves and refused to put a price on their heads or acknowledge that they were the so-called property of other white people, essentially saying back then that their lives mattered equally when society was saying otherwise. That Black Lives Matter. After I spoke, a student who has been outspoken among her peers talked about what the Black Lives Matter movement meant to her and how she didn’t want her younger sister to come to the school and be picked on because she was black. She and some of the other students had gone into the assembly fearing heckling and disruptions, and instead she and they received a standing ovation. It brought tears to my eyes and reminded me why I love living here. Thank you, CVU Community. You have turned something awful into something truly special, and I look forward to being there when you raise that Black Lives Matter flag.

Robots! Robots! Robots! This Saturday at CVU

Celebrate sport for the mind on February 23rd at CVU!

ALL day this Saturday from 9am to 5pm at CVU in the gym.

CVU's Robotics team (the Robohawks) are hosting this year's FIRST Robotics FTC Vermont State Championships! There will be 32 teams of high school engineering students from all over New England pitting their engineering, coding, and robotics skills against each other. It is an amazing opportunity to see STEM project-based and personalized learning in action! Every team will have a "pit" booth where they will be answering questions and presenting their work, and throughout the day teams will be competing head-to-head on the competition fields.

Here is a link to video of this year's challenge: Rover Rukus

Link to FIRST Robotics international program  (An international program serving grades K-12!)

Link to FIRST Robotics vision & mission

CVU Robohawks' website and Youtube channel.

Come support CVU Robohawks and awesome STEM work being done by high school students!

Specifics About the Budget, part 1

This post is one of a series of CVSD Board communications about the proposed 2019-2020 school budget.There are three articles that votes will see on the ballot. (Articles VII, VIII, IX)

Article VII asks voters to approve a consolidated budget for operating all schools in the five towns of the 4000-student Champlain Valley School District for the next fiscal year starting July 1, 2019. The proposed budget for operations and maintenance of our six schools is $78,901,170, an increase of 2.7% from the prior year.

Proposed budget increases can be attributed to the cost of goods and services, including contractual obligations for salaries and benefits. Some increased staffing next year to address class size goals were largely offset by reductions in other areas across the district.

In our second year as a merged system, we estimate savings of $331,000 due to consolidation for a total of $612,000 over the first three years. These savings include reductions in audit costs, board costs, operations administration, transportation efficiencies and controlling the savings which come from teacher retirements.

To provide further opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback, we are offering a series of budget information meetings across the CVSD. The list of meetings can be found on the district’s website and you are welcome to attend any presentation, in any town, that are convenient for you.

In addition, our budget website page has many resources, including our Annual Report and our FY 2019-2020 Proposed Budget Flyer, and our Budget FAQ’s. 

Hard copies of our Annual Report can be found at each school and town office or can be mailed to you by calling 985-1914. The CVSD Board Budget Meetings were recorded and can be viewed at www.RETN.com. Lastly, email us at CVSDBoard@cvsdvt.org with any questions.

We encourage all residents in Champlain Valley School District towns to vote either on March 5th or earlier at your town offices.

Learn About the Proposed CVSD Budget for 2019-2020

We hope that our readers will explore the many ways in which you can learn about the proposed 2019-2020 budget for the Champlain Valley School District.

Last week our Board Chair, Lynne Jaunich, our Superintendent, Elaine Pinckney, and our Chief Operating Officer, Jeanne Jensen, shared a presentation about the proposed budget live on Channel 17. Please view a recording of the presentation here.

In addition, there are many resources available on the budget page of the district's website, including a schedule of other presentations, frequently asked questions, and more.

Budget Flyer
Budget FAQs

Celebrating CVSD Penguin Plunge Success

Many of you may have read the recent article in some of the local papers about the CVU Penguin Plunge Team. Even without their fearless leader Peter Booth plunging into the frigid waters of Lake Champlain, the CVU team fared extremely well. The air temperature was cold, the water at 32 degrees likely felt even colder, but the enthusiasm and dedication to this event warmed the hearts of many.

According to the Penguin Plunge Cool Schools site, the 191 members of the CVU team continued its reign this year as the top school fundraiser. This year a whopping $34,565 was raised. The Williston Schools' team, led by Jodi Bartley with 47 members, moved up in the ranks and finished just behind CVU in 2nd place overall for schools, raising $16,628 for Special Olympics.

Not to be left out, the Hinesburg Community School’s 29 members raised $7847 and Charlotte Central School fielded a team of 4 and raised $657.

Please enjoy this small selection of photos from the event. 

Overall, that’s nearly $60,000 for Special Olympics Vermont raised by faculty, staff, students, and friends of the CVSD schools. Thank you for all who were brave enough to plunge and who put forth an amazing effort on all fronts. We are overflowing with pride.

WCS Artist-In-Residency

Susan Stewart, a teacher of students in grades 3 & 4 at Williston Central School, shared the following about an event that took place this week with all of the third and fourth graders in Williston. 

Our WCS Grade 3-4 teams experienced an Artist Residency! Vermont singer/songwriter, Jon

Gailmor, worked with each class to compose a unique song about Vermont during the week of January 28 - February 1st. There was a performance on the afternoon of February 1.

The purpose of this residency was two-fold. First, the Williston Schools have a deep commitment to integrating the arts and promoting artistic expression as part of our school programs. Songwriting, singing, and performing are well-aligned with this commitment. Our second purpose was to promote Global Citizenship, a goal the district promotes in many ways, including through our Sister School partnerships.

Some of you may remember that Mrs. Parks, WCS building principal, and I are on the Board of an inner city school in Nairobi, Kenya (Africa) called Hands of Love Educational Centre. We have formed a sister school partnership between HOL and grades 3 & 4 at WCS. The Partnership has a number of goals. Two of them are:

1. To expand the cross-cultural understanding between people of Nairobi, Kenya and Williston, Vermont
2. To jointly design and carry out activities between both schools under a cooperative framework. 

Our first jointly designed activity is composing and sharing songs representative of our place and culture. Hands of Love hosted an artist-in-residence last fall. WCS students have had the opportunity to view their work. Our songs will likewise be shared with HOL.

While we want our students to gain an understanding of our Global Community from these songwriting experiences and sharing of culture, there are great differences between our schools. Hands of Love is situated in one of the most impoverished slums in Nairobi. It is funded entirely

through private donors and fundraising. The second annual WCS Shoe Drive will take place later this spring. In the meantime, should you care to make a donation to help the school provide education, food, clean water, medical attention, or to defray any of its other expenses, you may donate online.

Thank you so much for your support of this exciting integration of arts and multicultural project!

Sincerely,

Susan Stewart, Equinox House, Williston Central School

A short video of Jon Gailmor working with students (via Instagram)

The teachers created a song with Jon Gailmor as well and performed it for students and parents at the culminating event. A parent posted this on Instagram. We agree!