RISE at CVU 2024

The last two weeks took on a distinct character as the academic year wound down at Champlain Valley Union High School. The regular class schedules and programming gave way to a flurry of final projects, presentations, and assessments. Once these culminating activities were complete, the school transitioned into RISE, an enrichment program that occupied the remaining two weeks before summer break.

RISE stands for Reflective Interest-based, Student Experiences. Students attended either two sessions a day, morning and afternoon, or chose to participate in a full-day session each day. Students might also have explored an Independent Learning Seminar. RISE is a part of the academic school year and attendance is a graduation requirement.

An excerpt from the RISE 2024 Catalog: 

Our current educational model needs regular, system-wide, and equitable opportunities for student to develop and cultivate interests. We believe that RISE better accounts for the whole student (their interests and values), connects to the pursuit of lifelong learning, and will increase engagement and a desire to learn. Our model shows that, as a student-centered school committed to personalization, proficiency, and social-emotional wellbeing; we value the fusion of conventional and flexible learning opportunities to meet the needs of all students. 

Thank you Peter Booth, Carly Rivard, and Luke Dorfman for your incredible efforts to make this experience happen. And thank you to all staff for sharing your interests and passions with students in an enriching way.

Here's a small sampling of some of the varied offerings this year.

• Art and Activism: Puppets, Power, Protest, and Paint

Puppets? Protest? Join us for an integrated creative and theatrical experience. One of the many uses of art is to communicate, to express thought, to educate, and to motivate. Art and Activism explores the historical and contemporary use of images to create platforms for social issues through art and community engagement. While gaining perspective and context through examination of contemporary artists, we will work together to bring our own passions and interests to the masses. How will we do this? Through the creation of larger-than-life puppets! We will conclude with a theatrical presentation created entirely by participants. 

• Explore Non-Traditional Career Pathways

The intention for this RISE session was for students to be exposed to a variety of career pathways that may not require a 4-year college degree. We explored regional workplaces and career and Technical centers, with a focus on the fasted growing careers in Vermont, especially the trades. We did some career development work to explore interests and abilities and visited different workplaces that aligned with those interests. The goal was to visit a different place of employment daily off campus so that we could explore all of the careers involved and figure out next steps after high school. 

• Sports Analytics

Sports Analytics offered an exciting introduction to the world of data-driven sports analysis. Participants learned statistical techniques, explored data visualization, and applied their skills to analyze performance data from various sports. They unlocked the secrets of sports succedss through data-driven insights!

•  Game Programming

Students learned how to write code to create games of different types. They grew to understand that programming a game is a different experience from playing a game. They looked into the creativity and logic behind creating games. They learned through tutorials, experimentation, and examples from professional game developers. 

• Linguistics: The Art and Science of Language(s)
• Why is it so hard to say "She sells seashells by the seashore?" (Phonetics)
• What's the difference between a tapping bot and a dabbing pod? (Phonology)
• What is the "cran" in cranberry? (Morphology) 
• You this sentence can understand - but how? (Syntax)
• How did 'hlafweard' become 'lord'? (Historical Linguistics)

Participants explored these questions (and more!) by completing linguistic puzzles, investigating word histories, playing language games, composing metrical poetry, and digging into examples from the world's 7000+ languages. 

One session at RISE was called Documenting RISE: Photojournalism in Action. Facilitated by Olivia Gatti, CVU librarian and a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, a group of students branched out to visit and capture the essence of various RISE offerings, in and out of the school building. See their photos below. (The names on the slides are the photographers.)

Thank you to everyone who helped make RISE a success once again! 

Past posts about RISE: 

2023

2019

The Origins of RISE

Thank You from CVSD

Dear CVSD Community,

Yesterday, the Champlain Valley School District community voted in favor of our FY25 budget, with 4,358 voting in favor and 2,947 against. First, and above all else, thank you. With the passage of the proposed budget, the school district can return to focusing on preparation for the end of this school year and the beginning of the next one.

We know that the past few months have been difficult. We had to make hard decisions affecting programming and services supporting our students in our schools—directly or indirectly—every day. We value and care for all of the people who hold positions that are impacted and appreciate all they have done for our schools.

Seeing how our community came together to support our schools has been a bright spot. We would like to thank everyone who engaged in the effort - the educators who held visibility events, our parent groups who organized budget meetings, our students who voiced their concerns, community members who spoke to neighbors about the school budget, and every other person who supported our schools. Hearing what you love about the district, what you feel is most valuable to our students, and the importance of CVSD's collective work will continue to guide us.

We know we still have more work to do over the coming years to control costs. We are committed to this work and are actively working through these strategic decisions both at the district level and advocating for CVSD at the state level. We encourage you to stay engaged in this process going forward.

Again, thank you, voters, for supporting our schools.

Rene Sanchez, Superintendent

Meghan Metzler, Chair, CVSD Board of Directors

 

CVSD Hosts Breakfast with Legislators

 

On Monday morning, members of the Champlain Valley School District’s board of directors, along with district and building leaders, hosted an annual breakfast meeting with several members of the Vermont legislature, most of whom represent towns in our school district.

The meeting opened with an acknowledgment that, though this is called a Legislative Breakfast, the meal hasn’t been an element since before COVID. It was a pleasure connecting in person for the first time in many years!

CVSD Board Chair, Meghan Metzler, welcomed everyone and shared a summary of the work that the Board and district administration had done for years to prepare for the implementation of Act 127. The late changes in the process and the arrival of H.850 felt like a gut punch. They knew that there would be budgeting challenges but thought we had five years to ease into them. Instead, it all happened at once. Even though the overall budget increased by around 10%, many towns were facing nearly a 30% increase in their property taxes. As the second-highest impacted district in the state, CVSD is facing significant challenges.

We are now presenting voters with a new budget which includes $5 million in reductions. The estimated property tax impact, still not fully determined, is going to be significantly less than the budget proposed on Town Meeting Day. The reductions in the new budget result in a large impact on our schools and ultimately on the community.

Other board members chimed in to say how the failure of our budget passing has impacted people who currently work in our schools, their livelihood, and their families. We all know and understand that voters wanted to send a message. However, the ones who feel the message the most are those who work in our schools and students who rely on our schools for their education, other needs, services, and especially a connection. When cuts are made at schools, it’s the students who will suffer most.

Legislators, including Erin Brady, a former CVSD board member who is the vice chair of the House Committee on Education and a teacher in another district, provided insight from their perspective. This is a much larger topic and the issues related to education will not be resolved at the end of this session.

Some main points that were made at the meeting include:

• There’s an understanding that many school district budgets were voted down to send a message to the legislature. They heard that message. However, community members should directly reach out to our legislators to provide thoughts and feedback about education and education funding in Vermont. Keep sending messages.
• We need to right-size public education that serves all students and uses public funding sustainably. It is a systems problem and a funding problem. We need to fix both at the same time.
• The House Ways and Means Committee focuses on how education is funded, not education itself. We can’t lead with taxes. It’s purely a funding formula; it’s not about what our students need.
• We’ll be using the tax rate in H.850 for the next fiscal year. There is likely no change to the funding formula coming before the end of this session.
• Another challenge is that the Agency of Education is under-resourced. It doesn’t have the capacity to fix and improve things.
• Mental and behavioral supports are in school budgets - that is not going away. Here’s a piece from Senator Doug Racine in VTDigger about children’s mental health and property taxes.
• There’s work underway to explore school facility needs across Vermont. Again, this won’t be solved soon, but it is a focus.
• We have this year and maybe next year to buy time to find ways to add revenue to the ed fund. That’s competing with other priorities the legislature is working on. The state, the legislature, the governor, and the people of Vermont must be committed to education.

Toward the end of the meeting, CVSD Board members summarized our current environment for the legislators - say that you heard us. Say that more money is going into our education fund. We are all taxpayers. Failing budgets only impact the system negatively. We have a high-quality school district. The longer this system continues, the worse it’s going to get because we’ll have to decimate our district.

We need communities to reach out to our legislators so they continuously hear that we have to deal with public education now. Send an email, make phone calls. They need to hear more and directly from taxpayers. Tell them how you feel. Communicate as widely as you can and encourage friends and neighbors to do the same.

Here’s a recording of the Legislative Breakfast.

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Legislators attending the breakfast: Rep. Chea Waters Evans, Senator Tom Chittenden, Rep. Jessica Brumsted, Rep. Erin Brady, Rep. Angela Arsenault, Rep. Phil Pouech

CVSD Board Members attending: Angela Arsenault, Erika Lea, Erin Henderson, Cassandra Townshend, Kate Webb, Dave Connery, Meghan Metzler, Brendan McMahon, Keith Roberts, Lindsay Colf

Contact information for some of our legislators:

• Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale kramhinsdale@leg.state.vt.us
• Sen. Thomas Chittenden TChittenden@leg.state.vt.us
• Sen. Virginia Lyons VLyons@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Kate Lalley KLalley@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Jessica Brumsted JBrumsted@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Phil Pouech PPouech@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Chea Waters Evans CEvans@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Erin Brady EBrady@leg.state.vt.us  House Committee on Education Vice Chair
• Rep. Noah Hyman NHyman@leg.state.vt.us
• Rep. Angela Arsenault AArsenault@leg.state.vt.us
• Sen. Brian Campion BCampion@leg.state.vt.us  Senate Committee on Education Chair
• Rep. Peter Conlon PConlon@leg.state.vt.us  House Committee on Education Chair

Author Jason Chin Visits CVSD Schools

Science teachers across the district have been looking for ways to integrate science into reading and writing classes while also creating a shared experience for our PreK-8 students. This week, CVSD's PreK-8 buildings are welcoming Jason Chin to share his experiences and insights into writing and illustrating children’s books. Jason Chin, a local author and illustrator, is a diverse author and a Caldecott Medal winner who has written and illustrated a series of children’s books including many on non-fiction science topics.

“I love meeting readers and sharing what I love, and I hope that my visits will help young readers see themselves as artists, scientists, readers and writers.” -Jason Chin

These visits were funded through a grant, the school district, and each school's PTO/family organizations supported it as well.

Thank you, Jason, for such enriching and engaging presentations! Here are a few photos from the visit with Williston students yesterday. He was in Charlotte today and will be in Shelburne and Hinesburg this week as well.

Special Guests at HCS

Matt Meuneir, the Student Assistance Professional (SAP) at CVU, is an assistant coach for the St. Michael's College baseball team. The coaches ask their players to be thinking of ways they can help their community. The senior captain had the idea of doing a toy drive for a group of young students. The team decided that Hinesburg would be a great place to do it. Matt reached out to HCS saying some of his players wanted to give back to a school. The players wanted to do something for the kindergarteners. 

Eight players visited with the kindergarten classes at HCS yesterday with the head coach.

Thank you for such a thoughtful and generous visit! 

Access CVU Fall-Winter Classes

Did you know that Access CVU was voted by the community as the top finalists in the Seven Daysie Awards 2023 for Best place to take an Arts Class, as well as Best Cooking Classes?!

Here's a message from Access CVU. If you don't know what it is or haven't take a class in a while, check this out! 

Our FALL/WINTER 2023 Catalog of classes is open for registration! We are excited to start this semester with 191 diverse classes featuring 79 talented instructors. Keep ACCESS CVU top of mind this fall, and add community enrichment to your calendar!

New classes will be added to the catalog every month, and announced first in our newsletter and on Instagram and Facebook! Follow and tag us at @ACCESSCVU and make sure you signed-up for
the ACCESS CVU NEWSLETTER.

Posters and flyers will be available for pick up at your local supermarket, library, town office, and at all CVSD Schools. The link to our flyer is on our homepage for easy viewing and printing. September's list of classes can be found HERE.

Do you or someone you know want to teach at ACCESS CVU? Click the New Instructor Form or email access@cvsdvt.org.

Save The Date! CVU Craft Fair- Saturday, Oct 14 and Saturday, Nov 25. Reach out to Carol Fox at cvuvenue@cvsdvt.org if you would like to volunteer for these events!

To view classes and enroll online, visit https://cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com/ (or Google, ACCESS CVU). Questions about classes or to enroll via email or phone, contact access@cvsdvt.org / 802-482-7194.

Thank you for supporting ACCESS CVU and for keeping community education thriving at CVSD. Connect, learn, and grow at ACCESS CVU!

Kindly,
Laura and Jen

HCS Awarded An Exciting Grant

 

HCS is One of Ten Schools and Districts Selected for the Second Cohort!

Hinesburg Community School (HCS) was selected as one of 10 schools nationally to partner with the national education nonprofit organization, Transcend, to be a part of their second cohort of the Rural Schools Design Community. This is a ten-month program where school administrators and faculty will prioritize reimagining their school model to better serve students and families.

At the start of the ten-month program, each school community will identify a core team to lead the process in their communities. Through this program, teams work locally to enlist their broader community in shaping the vision for their reimagined school. Throughout the 10 months, the groups will also engage in convenings, exploring high-impact topics such as generating a community-led school design process to achieve equitable results for all students, understanding the skills and mindsets needed for young people to thrive in and transform the world, learning how to ensure community aspirations and needs are reflected, and understanding school & district design.

The 2023-2024 Transcend Rural Schools Design Community includes:

• Calistoga Joint Unified School District in Calistoga, CA
• East Range Academy of Technology & Science (ERATS) in Mt. Iron, MN
• Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools in Elizabeth City, NC
• Hinesburg Community School/Champlain Valley School District in Hinesburg, VT
• Lasara ISD in Lasara, TX
• Los Lunas Schools in Los Lunas, NM
• Riverhead Charter School in Calverton, NY
• Rugby Public Schools in Rugby, ND
• Southern Berkshire Regional School District in Sheffield, MA
• Warren County Schools in Warrenton, NC

The Rural Schools Design Community will take place at no cost to participants thanks to a grant and will commence in August of 2023.

We will provide updates when the work gets underway. Congratulations HCS!

Back to School Reminders

Dear CVSD Families and Caregivers,

The school district's offices are gearing up for the upcoming school year. You can help us! Please view these reminders and take the necessary action. We truly appreciate your help and support and are excited to kick off the school year soon!

1. We know that you all received notifications and emails about completing the PowerSchool Annual Forms Update. This is required each year and is important for many reasons including safety and security as well as for the various permissions that are needed annually. Contact your school if you need assistance.

2. We also want to remind families and caregivers about filling out the Free and Reduced Meal application each year as well. Students need healthy meals to learn. The Champlain Valley School District offers healthy meals every school day. In School Year 2023-2024, all students will receive free breakfast and lunch at school. Even though there is no charge for breakfast and lunch, we are asking you to fill out this application for free and reduced-price school meals. 

This document provides many of the reasons why it is important to fill out the forms even though meals are free to students this year. Please go to the Free and Reduced Meals page on our website to learn more and to access the online and printable forms. 

3. And finally, mark your calendar for the 2nd annual Playing Fields event! Join us on September 7 from 6-8 pm at CVU. This is open to all CVSD families and community members.

As always, feel free to reach out with questions, feedback, or compliments using Let's Talk!

Save the Date for a Great Community Event!

 

The Flynn and the Champlain Valley School District are excited to bring Playing Fields to CVSD for the second year in a row. Bring your friends, family, and neighbors to come play with us on Thursday, September 7th from 6-8 pm at CVU. Come at 6:00 to make sure you don't miss anything!

This whimsical event is a free back-to-school celebration for the school district and surrounding community. 

Be amazed as 12-foot tall, luminous horses light up the field and joust, dance, and play with the crowd. 

Mark your calendars now! 

SCS and Their Special GOAT Guests

Shelburne Community School has some special guest visitors for the next few weeks... goats! The goat visitors are from New Village Farm. Five Nigerian Dwarf goats are stationed in the breezeway at SCS for the next two weeks. 5th grade "Goat Ambassadors" are available to meet with classes and small groups to share more about these animal friends. All classes have the opportunity to sign up for a visit.

Thank you to Jess Howard, Vasanthi Meyette, Devon Morrill, and Sean Murray for helping this partnership come to life. And thanks to 7th graders for helping to build the goats an enclosure last week. If all goes well they hope to bring the goats back in the fall.

Constructing the enclosure

African Drummers and Dance at Allen Brook School

Thank you to Jen Canfield, a kindergarten teacher at the Allen Brook School, for submitting this post. She also wrote the grant to the Williston Families as Partners (FAP) organization that funded this incredible opportunity. The FAP's fundraising efforts provide grants to teachers and programs within the Williston schools. 

Funded by a generous FAP grant, Allen Brook students have had the privilege of learning from Burlington's Jeh Kulu West African Dance and Drum Ensemble. "Jeh Kulu" means community in the Bambara language of Mali and Jeh Kulu's Guinean American teaching artists brought our school community together in the celebration of West African dance and drumming.

Over the course of this week, each class learned a traditional West African dance and, at the end of the residency, we will gather together in a schoolwide celebration to share the dances we learned. We were honored to work with dancer Khadija Bangoura and drummers Ismael and Ibrahime Bangoura. Thank you to these amazing teaching artists for joining our school community for a week!

We can't wait to hear about the final celebration!

Upcoming Event: Youth Vaping Panel

Here's a message from ParentIN

According to an October 2022 ParentIN survey, 87% of CVSD caregivers viewed smoking/vaping as a big problem or somewhat big problem among our youth. ParentIN is addressing this health concern head on with a community education event for caregivers.

The virtual discussion with expert panelists will share what you need to know about vaping and actionable ways to prevent our children from starting.

Learn more and register today! 

Let's Talk and Engage in Conversation

Last March, the school district softly rolled out a new communication tool called Let's Talk. Let’s Talk makes it easy for parents, students, staff, and community members to ask questions, request information, and share feedback. Over the summer, we added topics for each of our schools. 

Anytime someone submits something to Let's Talk, it goes to the people who are most knowledgeable about the topic. There's often a team of people behind each topic, ready to engage with you on any inquiry.

“As a school district, we want to create a thriving school culture and climate, and that’s only possible by listening to community feedback,” says Superintendent Rene Sanchez. “Let’s Talk makes it easier for our stakeholders — including students, families, staff, and community members — to reach out with questions or concerns and provides the district with data needed to make informed decisions.”

Let’s Talk delivers dynamic features including:

• 24/7 accessibility from any device, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops; and will soon support texting
• We are working to add translation tools that can translate dialogues to a number of languages to meet community needs and manage multilingual communications
• Data collection to help education leaders make informed decisions

"Let’s Talk enables our district to accommodate the communication needs and preferences of our community members with a variety of channels and translation tools (soon!), and address issues and inequities experienced by students and families. This is directly tied to findings from our equity audit,” reports Superintendent Sanchez. “No matter how our community contacts us — we are able to provide a timely, accurate response through Let’s Talk within 3 business days, though it's typically less.”

Every voice deserves to be heard and every question deserves to be answered. Let’s Talk makes this all possible. We encourage everyone in our community to use Let’s Talk to share your feedback, questions, and ideas to help us deliver high quality customer experiences and make CVSD an even better place for our students, staff, and families.”

Here's a short how-to video to help you see how easy it is to share your thoughts.

We look forward to hearing from you!

CVSD's Let's Talk page

RoboHawks Get to Work and Support the Community

Here's a guest post from the CVU Robohawks team. 

This week the RoboHawks and JV Redhawk Robotics teams met and started to dig deep into brainstorming, designing and prototyping this year's bot after the season's release on the 10th, as well as hosted a workshop to introduce the CVSD middle school students to robotics.

The workshop hosted at CVU by the RoboHawks this past Tuesday for students and parents in the CVSD district focused on the FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition. The event marks the beginning of the program after months of behind-the-scenes work and makes their goal a reality of helping each district middle school start an FLL robotics team. The RoboHawks aim to strengthen and encourage participation in STEAM programs within the community by promoting and supporting opportunities for middle school students. The workshop was tremendously successful, with excellent attendance and representation from every CVU sending school! The RoboHawks worked with students to begin their coding adventure in FLL robotics and gave parents a great overview of why the program is valuable and fun! This year’s challenge is power themed and includes tons of fun challenges to tackle. We can't wait to see FIRST Core Values grow in each district school and see where the program goes!

RoboHawks will be hosting another FLL workshop in the near future. For more information or if you would like to learn more about our team, check out our website, or feel free to contact us at cvu_robohawks_2022@cvsdvt.org.

It's Time to Take An Access Course!

We are excited to pass along this announcement from our friends at Access CVU. If you haven't had a chance to take a course (or teach one!) please explore the many offerings. 

Greetings from Laura and Jen 

at Access CVU!

Fall/Winter 2022- Registration Is Now Open!

Access CVU, your Community Education Program, is back in action with another semester of amazing enrichment for both in-person and online learners. In-person classes take place at CVU High School and start after 4pm, Monday-Thursday. Online classes are offered through Zoom.

Over 200 classes (new classes added monthly!) 

and 89 local instructors.

Enroll today! Popular classes fill quickly and low enrollment leads to canceled classes. Invite your family and friends!

New classes and instructors are added every month! Don't miss out; sign-up for the weekly Access CVU Newsletter.

• Follow us on Instagram @accesscvu for class announcements and PROMOS!

• Looking to teach a course at Access CVU? Complete the New Instructor Form (also located on our Homepage)

• Visit us at https://cvsdvt.ce.eleyo.com/ or Google, Access CVU. Questions or to enroll via email or phone, contact us at access@cvsdvt.org / 802-482-7194.

Thank you for supporting Access CVU and keeping community education thriving in CVSD. We hope to see you soon!

Mindfulness in CVSD Schools

 

HCS students

Last year, the Champlain Valley School District announced that Inner Explorer was made available to our schools. Access to Inner Explorer comes at a critical time when supporting the mental health of students and adults in our buildings is a priority. 

This was made possible through a generous donation from Project Hoeppner. Sue and Joe Hoeppner, who established Project Hoeppner, see Inner Explorer as a research-based, school-family-community, plug-n-play solution to support kids. 

“We created Project HOePpnEr in response to our 17-year-old son Paul’s death by suicide. Initially, our goal was to prevent teen suicide by encouraging teens to ask for help. Unfortunately one of the things we realized is that help is hard to find. As we find ourselves further removed from Paul’s death, we realize that preventing teen suicide is more than identifying and addressing the crisis. It’s providing tools, teaching strategies, and creating habits that kids can access their whole lives. We see Inner Explorer as an important part of an overall strategy to promote health and wellness for kids.”

Tony Moulton, CSVD’s Director of Integrated Wellness, has been instrumental in working with Project Hoeppner and Inner Explorer to make this happen. 

“I am excited to have this evidence-based, easy-to-use tool for our students and families. We know that stress and anxiety have increased over the past year. The practice of mindfulness, when offered and applied in a structured, easily accessible format like Inner Explorer, has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. This tool in the hands of our amazing teachers, educators, students, and families can help teach emotional regulation skills and build resilience. We are so grateful to the Hoeppners for this opportunity.”

CVSD schools have started to implement Inner Explorer and incorporate it into routines. Some of our educators using it were featured in a recent Inner Explorer blog post. 

We will share additional information and announcements about Inner Explorer soon as it rolls out to more classrooms and eventually to families for use at home. 

WCS educators

About Inner Explorer
Inner Explorer was developed in 2011 by mindful awareness teachers with more than 30 years of combined experience. Understanding the difficulty in developing a daily practice, Inner Explorer created a technology platform that delivers audio-guided practices to teachers and students. This gives them the opportunity to practice together - reducing stress, improving academic performance, and enhancing the school climate. This unprecedented offering simplifies the implementation of mindfulness in the classroom and supports the national initiative called 2-Generation Approach by bridging the classroom and home. Especially now – Inner Explorer encourages families to join in daily practices with their children, extending the wellbeing benefits into the community. www.InnerExplorer.org One-page Flyer: Why Mindfulness


About Project Hoeppner
Project HOePpnEr is a 501(c)3 organization invested in providing tools, teaching strategies, and practicing habits that kids can access their whole lives. Increasing awareness around the catastrophe that is teen suicide. Offering courage for teens to say "I need help" and for their loved ones to hear.

Communicating with All

Last week a group of CVSD special educators and speech and learning pathologists (SLPs) from CVSD met to continue their learning with the University of Vermont's Inclusion Team. The focus is on augmented communication tools for preschool and kindergarten students who are learning to communicate. 

This all-day session was the second of three that are taking place over the course of this school year.

Superintendent's Thoughts on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in CVSD

 

November 14, 2021

Hello CVSD Families, Staff, and Community,

I write to you today to share my thoughts on the status of diversity, equity, and inclusion work in our beloved district.

In these first months of my tenure, we’ve had several equity issues come to light that are very concerning. Upon personal reflection and through conversations with those folks directly impacted, I understand that these concerns could have been addressed in a more thoughtful and collegial manner. As we, as an institution, continue to grow, we will improve our knowledge and implementation of practices that support students, staff, and others in diversity, equity, and inclusion work.

I recognize that, often, growth comes with growing pains. In this case, the growing pains manifested in some of our staff feeling let down and frustrated. Folks have expressed that they feel vulnerable, targeted, and even afraid to come to work. Our staff should never experience hostility while at work in our schools. These essential community members must be encouraged to continue their work focusing on the outcomes that we aim to achieve for every student in our care.

As superintendent, I’ve learned that developing and strengthening relationships goes a long way toward solving personnel issues and furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. With honest and open communication, we can face personal and professional discomfort and grow together while also learning more about each other in the process.

But personal and administrative growth is only part of this complex picture. For significant change to occur as a district, it is essential to focus on the more significant systemic issues. A comprehensive equity policy can immediately call for a review of our board and administration policies and procedures to ensure they are equitable and fair. A sound equity policy has guidelines for formal and informal communication--how we talk to each other, how we provide access to co-curricular and other activities outside of the classroom, and how we measure and adjust for a student’s growth and progression through our system.

To address these systemic issues, I am taking a proactive approach. But I realize achieving equity takes more than one person. We must come together and work together. So, I’m asking you — the CVSD community — to guide and hold your district accountable along the way.

Under my leadership, these are some upcoming diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that I am excited to share with you:

First (pending final board approval next week,) we will contract with Mass Insight to undertake a formal equity audit that will review many current district systems. This audit will start, in full swing, in January. We will seek volunteers to participate in focus groups on specific topics. Based on the audit results, we may need additional feedback or budgetary steps to fulfill the recommendations.

Second, on December 8 at 6:30, CVSD will hold its first Town Hall on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Our goal is to have a structured meeting where attendees can work together to create immediate and long-term action steps. I plan to hold town halls bi-monthly through at least the end of the school year. The insights gathered at these forums will help guide us into our five-year strategic plan work.

Third, I have been thrilled to meet with many of our local DEI community and school groups this year. We have many folks interested in the district’s DEI work. I’d like to recruit members of these committees, as well as students, parents, staff, and others, to join a CVSD DEI Advisory Group. The purpose of this group will be to help the district engage the wide range of voices from our five towns, our schools, and the broader community. Our aim is to better understand the needs of our students and staff and ensure that those needs are met in policy and practice.

Fourth, beginning in March 2022 and concluding spring semester 2023, CVSD will undergo a process to develop a five-year strategic plan. This plan will involve stakeholders across the district and use our equity policy as a lens throughout the strategic planning process. We will gather information to establish goals, metrics, and action plans to guide our future budget, operational, and educational planning.

Fifth, while not directly focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, I will create a Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee. This committee will consist of four students from each school who will provide me advice and feedback on the student experience in the district. Additionally, as a group, we will seek opportunities for leadership and service on their campuses and in the community. From these conversations, I hope to learn more about the daily and yearly experience of the students so my administration can use it as another data point for serving our students.

I want to acknowledge that daily DEI work can be very challenging. DEI work is necessary work, but it will take time and patience to implement correctly. As in other Vermont districts, CVSD is in the beginnings of its DEI work. If we can move the needle forward each day, each week, each month, and each year to improve the academic, personal, and social-emotional outcomes for each of our students, we know we are making needed progress.

It’s important to note that we are still actively managing the effects of COVID-19 on our students and systems. The pandemic has affected every student differently. Knowing and accounting for each student’s needs, especially after the nearly 20 months of irregular student access to school, is at the core of DEI work. Additionally, the pandemic continues to cause increased anxiety and decreased coping capacity and strains the mental well-being of both students and staff. I recognize that this imperative work might seem overwhelming or be viewed as additional work on top of the regular course of business. But I assure you, as a district, we will strive to align our goals and target our outcomes to support this valuable DEI work.

I am honored to be your superintendent during this time of growth, inclusion, and curiosity. I am confident that this journey towards providing equity in our school district is the right path. And I am encouraged by the many passionate voices within the CVSD Community who will join me on this journey.

Sincerely,

Rene Sanchez

Hands Up Celebration Held in Williston

 

(l to r: Danielle Doucette, Youth Services Assistant, Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Cara Clopton, Library Media Specialist Allen Brook School, Bonnie Lord, Youth Librarian, Dorothy Alling Memorial Library)

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library (DAML) in Williston was the proud recipient of an American Library Association (ALA) Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries grant this year. They worked in collaboration with Allen Brook School on a special project to provide a free opportunity for family literacy engagement centered on creating a welcoming and inclusive community.

The grant was used to offer Brave Books Bags to each second-grade family at Allen Brook School earlier this fall. The bags included two picture books and two chapter books to spark conversations, understandings, and build caring, valued relationships. These books, created by Black authors and illustrators, were chosen to encourage conversations around racial equity and inclusiveness. The books range from picture books to middle grade titles, to encourage conversations amongst the very young as well as older family members.

As a follow-up to the distribution of the Brave Book Bags the community was invited to a celebration of the project on the Town Green today. Allen Brook Librarian Cara Clopton read the picture book Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel to celebrate social justice and the partnership between DAML & Allen Brook School. The story will also be featured on a Storywalk® on the Town Green this month.

The photos below were contributed by Cara Clopton. Thank you for your part in making this effort and event happen.