eBuses Have Arrived in CVSD

 In December 2019, we published this post about electric buses coming to CVSD. The Champlain Valley School District was selected to be a partner in the Agency of Natural Resources Electric School and Transit Bus Pilot Program. In March of 2020, voters in our towns approved the purchase of two buses (at the price of our regular diesel buses) and the grant we were award provided funds to make up the substantial difference. 

After a number of delays due to varied reasons, the buses have arrived! We have two electric buses, easily recognizable by the blue bumpers and wheels, that are running routes in Williston. They may also be used for other activities like field trips or transporting athletic teams, which could benefit our other schools as well. 

A group of CVSD leaders went to check out one of the buses today after it completed its morning route.

Greg Marino - Williston lead principal, Superintendent Rene Sanchez, Barry Russell - transportation supervisor, Angela Arsenault - board chair, Jeanne Jensen - CVSD COO

We could barely hear it coming into the WCS bus loop. What a difference! These buses will certainly help to reduce air pollution as well as diesel fumes. 

Barry Russell, transportation supervisor

The only need for diesel is for heat.

That looks a lot different than in a diesel bus!

Charging station at ABS

A few of our bus drivers have been trained to learn any additional details that pertains to driving an electric bus. There's great enthusiasm from students as well, especially those lucky enough to be on the routes covered by the electric buses. 

One lucky bus driver!

As we said in our December 2019 post, this opportunity allows us to not only transport students more safely and efficiently, but to make a concrete example of living up to our values. We are excited to take such an important role in helping Vermont reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. 

Climate Change: Don't Ignore the Signs

Shelburne Community School students on the Yellow Team worked with art teacher Carin Lilly to illustrate their learning in new ways. Thank you to Carin and Yellow Team teacher, Robin Halnon, for your guidance on this project and for providing the following information about it to inform all of us about this important topic. 

Climate Change: Don't Ignore the Signs is a collection of art produced by 7th and 8th grade students, that is based on research around climate change. Their work is inspired by the threat of global warming and widespread effects of climate change. They are raising their “voices” in the hopes of having an impact on awareness and to inspire personal decision making that supports efforts to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases. Working off of a central website, students inserted their own art and then linked it to their own sites with their artist's statements and research. It is a treasure trove of art and research!

Climate Change: Don't Ignore the Signs

Allen Brook School Abenaki Land Link

This past weekend, a group of volunteers were at the Allen Brook School to prepare garden beds. ABS educators Chris Sedic-Lawton and Cara Clopton shared the following to help inform others about this project. 

Allen Brook School has partnered with the Abenaki Land Link Project in an effort to acknowledge the fact that we live and learn on the traditional land of the Abenaki, support the movement of food sovereignty in Native nations, and engage our students in gardening. We are devoting four garden beds to raise plants which will be harvested and returned to the Nulhegan Band of Coosuk-Abenaki Nation in the fall. This past weekend, a large group of volunteers prepared existing garden beds and built two new ones.

The Abenaki Land Link Project (ALL) is a partnership between the Nulhegan Band of Coosuk - Abenaki Nation, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), and the Vermont Farm to Plate Network's Rooted in Vermont project. From the coordinators:

“As the growers, you are joining us in this partnership to steward Indigenous crops for food and seed saving in solidarity with the Nulhegan Band of Coosuk, to share in the eating of foods native to the Abenaki people, and to learn from the cultural history that the Abenaki ancestors used and continue to cultivate today. This project is founded in resiliency, not charity, and we are happy that you have chosen to join us in working towards this common goal.”

What will it look like at ABS?

• This is a pilot year
• The Nulhegan band, NOFA-VT, and VT Farm to Plate will supply heritage seeds.
• 2 garden beds will be built specifically for ALL
• The beds will hold Calais Flint Corn, True Cranberry Pole Bean, and Algonquian Winter Squash.
• In the fall, all harvested food will be given back to the Nulhegan band.
• We are working to include Native voices and expertise, as well as partnerships with the community.

What's Next?

• Collect materials and donations for garden beds, compost, fencing and tools. If you'd like to donate, please visit this link.
• Garden bed construction and preparation took place on Green Up Day (May 1st).
• After constructing and preparing the beds, then planting the seeds, we will look for partners to help maintain the crops as they grow over the summer.
• When we return in the fall, we will consider how to celebrate the harvest and return of the crops to the Nulhegan band.

CVU's Social Justice Alliance

We are honored to share another guest post. This one comes to us from students at CVU who are members of the Social Justice Alliance. We hope that viewers of this blog not only read this post, but take the time to visit the SJA website. The work and progress made by students in a short time, and the work underway now and for the future, is remarkable. 

Thank you to SJA members Eva Frazier and Hazel Civalier for their contributions to this post and especially to Carolina Sicotte, who composed most of it and was instrumental in getting this post published. Carolina serves on the Policy, Inservice/Education, and Media Awareness committees.

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Last February, representatives from the Racial Alliance Committee (RAC), Awareness, Change, and Training group (ACT)), Bring Change to Mind (BC2M), and the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) convened in the Fairbanks house office to discuss the environment regarding social justice issues at CVU. After only minutes of dialogue back and forth, there was no doubt that each group had done excellent work. For instance, the Racial Alliance Committee partnering with businesses and speaking at statewide conferences and Bring Change to Mind creating workshops and presenting to faculty. Yet, it was unanimously agreed upon that something was missing: interconnectedness. The individual clubs had been operating in near isolation for years, attempting to make traction for their issue alone by meeting with administrators, planning school events, and encouraging faculty to incorporate their ideas into curricula. Consequently, although remarkable work had been done, it felt as though there was a constant struggle for attention- of the administration, of the students, and of the community at large, and that until the issue could be resolved, true momentum would be nearly unattainable. The representatives decided to meet again, and as the snow melted and winter turned into spring, the Social Justice Alliance was effectively born. 

With goals of promoting substantial change, SJA became a space for members of 5 CVU clubs- RAC, EnACT, ACT, BC2M, and GSA to dedicate themselves to themes of intersectionality, collaboration, and collective action across several disciplines, while creating a platform for clubs with common goals surrounding social justice to work together.

“CVU’s Social Justice Alliance aims to cultivate a community in which each student’s right to equality is guaranteed, a holistically supportive learning environment is maintained, education on human rights issues is abundant, systemic change is implemented to uplift marginalized groups, and all students’ voices are heard and valued.”

The creation of the Social Justice Alliance opened the floodgates for action. Since its founding, members have wasted no time. With its five subgroups, it has been able to tackle social justice issues in a holistic manner:

Outreach: The outreach committee is truly the glue of SJA. Handling recruitment, member support, organization, and communication + engagement with the community, the outreach committee is responsible for our monthly student forums that cover topics such as eating disorder awareness and the current climate policy under the Biden administration. Furthermore, they have spearheaded presentations to 10th grade humanities classes and Student Council about SJA and have revamped our club’s structure to ensure smooth flow of our work and maintain an intersectional lens in SJA.

Inservice/Education: The inservice/education group began with an incredibly involved undertaking: providing the faculty and staff with presentations ranging from 20 minutes to up until 3 hours, in which topics such as handling microaggressions in classrooms and facilitation productive dialogue were discussed at length, a process that, since August, has continued with current engagement with faculty in the forms of curriculum KUD feedback and advocacy for a social justice credit requirement for CVU students.

Media Awareness: The media awareness committee has tackled several projects, including the launch of our website, podcast series, social media pages, and weekly newsletter. In addition to these ongoing projects, the group has also initiated the process of creating a social justice mural to brighten the walls of CVU.

Reporting/Culture: The reporting/culture subgroup works to increase student awareness of reporting opportunities and is also advocating for a healthier CVU culture to promote safety and inclusivity for all students. Currently, they are rolling out a new reporting campaign to increase visibility, creating educational awareness in sending schools on online sexual violence, and making changes surrounding many school events that have caused harm to numerous students over the years, such as rally in the valley.

Policy: The policy committee has met with administrators countless times, collaborating on issues ranging from reforming and distributing the Bullying, Harassment, and Hazing policy to reviewing the current model procedures and codes in the student handbook and the ways the student body accesses them and even creating an online incident reporting form for students to use at any time.

Speaking of SJA’s website, it is truly an outstanding resource for the community. To summarize, it contains the following resources:

SJA Information and Resources:

• Ways to join, contact, and stay connected with SJA
• Our mission, goals, and accomplishments
• Links to the Student Reporting Form, BHH Handout, and official BHH policy
• Resources we’ve created, such as...
• A recorded version of our August faculty & staff presentation
• Self education documents and further information on intersectionality
• Answered frequently asked questions + guides for educators

Member Club Information and Resources:

• Individual club projects, goals, and unique aspects
• Meeting times, club links, and contact information
• Specialized resources, statistics, and concepts relating to the issue

Updates:

• Blogs for the member clubs and SJA as a whole
• The Round Table (SJA) podcast episodes
• Question and answer form
• Newsletter subscription

In order to achieve its goals, the Social Justice Alliance welcomes community members to join them in their work by volunteering time in getting directly involved with the organization, proposing suggestions for future endeavors, or partnering on projects of interest to social justice issues.

The alliance thanks the students, faculty, staff, and administrators at Champlain Valley Union High School for supporting them in their efforts to create a safe, supportive environment for all at and around CVU. True student rights, equality, and education require consistent effort from all parties in a culture, and the Social Justice Alliance enthusiastically invites the CVSD community to make any contribution, big or small, to their efforts.

For contact and further inquiries, email: crsmith@cvsdvt.org

A Visit to Tree Island at ABS

A few years ago, members of the kindergarten team at the Allen Brook School did a lot of research and investigation around outdoor education and how that would benefit students and learning. Many valuable concepts were put in place. When we returned to school this year, that group of educators enhanced their work even more. 

The teachers involved include: Adam Deyo, Laura Dyer, Sarah Read, Chelsea Laberge, and Marie Fetters. Adam provided the guest blog post below and he and Laura shared the photos seen in the slideshow. A while back, past kindergarten students named their outdoor classroom space Tree Island, as seen on the sign they inventively created. 

“Hey, look over there, it’s Leafy!” says one Kindergartener as they walk with the group up the winding trail from the Allen Brook. Leafy is a Boxelder Maple tree that was aptly named earlier in the Fall. “I found a corndog!” says another child as they pluck a cattail from the tall grass along the trail’s edge. “Let’s go to the Hideout and build a boat!” The hideout is a small cluster of mostly invasive Buckthorn that creates a tiny little nook perfect for constructing. Near the entrance, another child practices her high bar routine from an evening gymnastics class on a hearty branch while another swings from a vine. These are just a few examples of how children are making sense of the landscape around our school and in turn developing a sense of place through play. Long before the onset of COVID, the benefits of playing outside were well known to help children build self-regulation and cope in an anxious world.

The University of Vermont’s PLACE program references this quote from Mitchell Thomashow, “People are typically interested in understanding who they are in relationship to where they live. By exploring the places that are most important to them, they are most likely to take an interest in the human and ecological communities of those places” (Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change, 2002) . Through intentional revisiting of an outdoor space throughout the year, we believe that the roots of curiosity and stewardship are fed through experiences in the natural world at school. As a team, we have been following research and practice closely in this area over the past 5-10 years. Our outdoor program was incrementally built each year, starting with Laura Dyer and Sarah Read’s classroom and now all four of the classrooms spend long periods of the day outside each with their own style, and with many shared routines and purposes. We were also fortunate to take a summer course with Eliza Minucci that allowed us to imagine one “forest day” becoming a daily practice. This solidified our intentions and confidence!

The land around Allen Brook school provides countless opportunities. As the children visit familiar trees to observe change over time, search for unique leaves, or use sunflower seeds on a ten-frame to build 1-to-1 correspondence and number sense, they are learning in the outdoors. In a recent talk with a group of teachers and administrators Joan Haley of Shelburne Farms discussed multiple ways outdoor education can occur. This nesting model includes (from large to small/gradually more integrated): learning with the outdoors, learning from the outdoors, learning about the outdoors, and learning in the outdoors. COVID has focused the spotlight on outdoor experiences at school and we are fortunate to have built a strong foundation of experiences of learning in nature.

We are grateful for the support of our Building Principal Angela Filion, Williston Schools Principal Greg Marino, CVSD Superintendent Elaine Pinckney, and the many families in our classrooms. Our hope is that the shift to outdoor learning sticks when COVID restrictions are lifted, the benefits are easy to see and a sense of reciprocal joy is deeply felt.

Electric Buses in CVSD

Superintendent Pinckney, COO Jensen, and CVU student Ethan Lisle

Ethan speaks on behalf of CVSD

Ethan and DEC commissioner, Emily Boedecker

The Champlain Valley School District has been selected to be a partner in the Agency of Natural Resources Electric School and Transit Bus Pilot Program! The announcement reads:

"Champlain Valley stood out in both your level of support for and engagement around this pilot and our confidence in your capacity to be a great Project Partner in deploying electric buses."

 At an event announcing the grant recipients on December 19, CVU student and Environmental Action Club (ENACT) member, Ethan Lisle, spoke on behalf of CVSD. The Commissioner from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, Emily Boedecker, presented the grant award to Ethan. Superintendent Pinckney and COO Jeanne Jensen were present as well. CVSD is one of three Vermont school districts that are recipients of this grant.

On Town Meeting Day, voters will see a ballot article for our share of the cost of two electric buses (our share is the equivalent of two diesel buses, with the grant making up the substantial difference.) The purchase of two school buses is proposed as part of the continual replacement cycle to ensure that buses in our fleet are no older than 15 years. If approved, the electric buses will be based at the Allen Brook School in Williston.

The Champlain Valley School District community prides itself on being a leader in sustainable practices.This opportunity allows us to not only transport students more safely and efficiently, but to make a concrete example of living up to our values. We are excited to take such an important role in helping Vermont reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. We hope to see the electric buses rolling through CVSD next fall.

Artistic Contributions to the Community

Last Friday we were walking from the school district's offices in Shelburne across the parking lot to the new Shelburne town library. We were going there to hang flyers for the upcoming Community Budget Meeting on October 7th. (7:00 pm, CVU room 160!) The Pierson Library just completed an entire rebuild and it opened a week ago. It's a beautiful building.

As we got closer to the library, we spotted a teacher from the Shelburne Community School, Vasanthi Meyette, along with a group of 6th grade students. They were painting on the pavement in front of the new library's front door! Here's the story that Vasanthi shared about what was underway: 

We met Kristen from the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District last year during our Ecosystems/Water Quality Unit. She came to talk about runoff/storm water and the pollution from our daily lives and it’s affect on our local waterways. This fall Rethink Runoff sponsored a storm drain mural art contest with the Stream Team. The murals were to be painted in Shelburne! We decided to enter. Students worked alone or in partnerships, explored the Rethink Runoff website, and looked at other storm drain murals. They got inspired and drew some amazing designs and came up with many catchy slogans. We eagerly awaited the news about our designs. Finally, we found out that our designs had not been chosen, BUT, one of the artists whose design was chosen needed at least 50 community members to participate in painting her design! Kristen thought of my 6th graders. Julie Holmes, the artist, is a former SCS parent and now a CCS parent. She graciously connected with us and invited us to collaborate on the mural. She visited us earlier in the week so that we could talk about design, her vision and practice painting water drops. Today was the highlight when we actually got to leave our mark! We are so lucky that it is at the library for all to see and for students to show their families!

After that, we talked with Kristen to hear more about this and the partnership between the Winooski Natural Resource Conservation District and the Department of Public Works. We found out that another mural was being painted outside of the Shelburne Country Store practically across the street. We went over there and found two CVU students hard at work on a beautiful fall day. Heatheranne Lee also won the contest and her friend Muriel Spell was helping her paint the design.

We are thrilled to see students from CVSD contributing artistically and making a difference in our communities. Go to Shelburne to see the finished products!

CVU: The Carbon Cutting Leader for Bus Ridership

Did you know that CVU was just given an award called The Carbon Cutting Leader for Bus Ridership? Representative Curt McCormack, Chair of the Vermont House Transportation Committee, and others announced the winning schools at a special celebration in the Statehouse on June 5, 2019.

We reached out to Katie Antos-Ketchum, CVU English teacher in the Fairbanks core, to learn more. She shared this guest blog post highlighting CVU's EnACT club as well as one student's work. 

The CVU Environmental Action Club (EnACT) participated in this year's Way to Go! Challenge. Our "bus" action was a bus ridership survey that was led by 9th grade student Sabina Brochu, who was curious to find out what barriers exist for students to ride the bus. Sabina took on this action as a part of her 9th grade Human Impact Project action which focused on the connection between fossil fuels, transportation, and climate change. 

The Human Impact Project had several components. Back in the winter, students were asked to choose an issue that they care about in the world, research the roots of the problem and its impact, and deliver a speech to educate an audience about their topic. In the spring semester, students shifted their focus to their own potential for making positive change and worked on developing solutions individually, locally, and globally that will help move a negative impact in a positive direction.

Sabina worked with me, the EnACT adviser, to develop her survey so that we could think about how to remove actual or perceived barriers students face in order to promote bus ridership. She presented her findings to the EnACT club this spring.

Of the 229 students who took the survey, 66% agreed that they ride the bus regularly, mostly or sometimes. Here's some interesting information about the students who consider themselves riders. First, 44.7% of our riders reported their travel times were 30 minutes or longer in duration. When asked what keeps them from riding some days, responses that are worth investigating from a systems level include the bus ride takes too long ( 31%), that the bus comes too early ( 23%), and that they aren't sure when the bus will arrive (18%). Social and cultural obstacles included sports or other commitments (49%) and social / personal reasons (25%).

The 34% who reported riding rarely or never also gave us feedback about what keeps them off the bus. For them, 39% reported the routes were too long, 37% said the bus came too early, 20% reported they weren't sure when the bus would arrive at their stop, 30% reported they had sports or other commitments, and 26% reported social/personal reasons kept them off the bus.

EnACT members have examined the data and will continue to problem solve around this topic in the coming year.

Sabina attended the awards ceremony in Montpelier at the end of the school year.

EnACT's mission statement: 

The Environmental Action Club believes that climate change poses significant risks for the future. We strive to cultivate an environmental ethos and action in our various communities. We envision a society whose practices are based on an ethic of conservation and sustainable improvement in the environmental well-being of the community.