Art Brings Us Together

Thank you to CVU Art Educator, Abbie Bowker, for sharing this post with us. We certainly have inspiring and talented teachers and students!

Every year for nearly all my sixteen years at CVU, we have participated in the Memory Project - a non-profit organization that takes photographs of youth living in difficult situations (extreme poverty, children's homes, refugee camps...) who partners with art teachers and students who make portraits that get delivered to these children all across the world. Since I started keeping track in 2008, we have made over 500 portraits for youth in ten different countries.

This spring was a little "different," in case you didn't notice....

I couldn't ensure that my students would all be ready to make the portraits without the structure and scaffolding that I usually provide in a classroom setting. With the format of remote learning, I couldn't even expect my students to participate. But, I know the power of this project to build empathy and understanding across cultures. The power of the experience for our students to want to do their best. So, I didn't give up on the project. I worked with the art teachers in our building to identify students whose skill set would be ready to work on this project independent of any class. People who could take it on, and would follow through. I invited students to participate, and even had some students refer other students to me and this project, which was particularly wonderful.

Because the Memory Project organization found themselves in a pinch, with many schools closed for the year, they had many portraits that had no artists to fulfill them. They were offering this service for free this spring in hopes to fill the gap that they were experiencing. This allowed us to do this project, opening it up to others outside our building in the greater community. We hope it helped the organization that has given so much, to so many.

The people who worked on this project did so, outside of any class. They took this on as something extra. There was a general feeling of togetherness working toward a common good, a purpose to anchor us during this difficult time, and a way to connect with others across the building, district, and community.

Below is the email I sent to them in thanks. It includes the presentation which includes photos of the artwork created. I am incredibly grateful to be working with such kind and giving students, faculty, and administrators who understand the power of art to bring us together.


Hello all,

I hope this note finds you well.

Thank you for participating in the Memory Project Spring 2020! You stood up and took on extra "work" - outside of any class or life responsibility - you took on something more. Something truly special. You took the time during a crisis to give. You gave your time, you gave your talent, you gave a lasting gift of a lifetime. You are all amazing.

Please see what you all made, together.

Thank you to Abbie, the CVU faculty and administration, and especially to the students for this tremendous project. 

A Parade of CCS Teachers

Last Friday, teachers and staff from Charlotte Central School arranged some parades to reconnect with students in a different way. They followed the different bus routes around town at various times throughout the day. In their own cars, they formed a parade to drive by and wave to students. They knew that they could not get to each individual house, but hoped that they would see as many of their families as possible in a safe manner!

Families were notified ahead of time that this would be happening and they were definitely waiting! They had signs of appreciation and smiles galore to thank their teachers for making the effort to see them. This was a win-win for all!

April Vacation Week

April 17, 2020

Dear CVSD Community,

We have completed the first week of Remote Learning and it has been amazing to see and hear about the various ways staff and students are connecting, and how teachers are delivering instruction. We are working together as a district and a community to create meaningful learning experiences for our students.

We realize remote learning poses a number of opportunities and challenges for students, families, and faculty/staff. Everyone has been patient and understanding as we’ve forged ahead and worked through these new endeavors. Please share successes, challenges, and any other feedback with your teachers that might inform instructional plans moving forward. Teachers will consider that as they move forward with planning for the next week of Remote Learning, starting on April 27.

April Vacation Week

A reminder that there will be no online learning for students April 20-24. We hope you are able to rest and recharge over the break and we look forward to reconnecting with all our students on Monday, April 27. For those seeking engagement options during this time, we have created an April Vacation Week Enrichment site for grades PreK-8 with a variety of activities and opportunities for students. Take a look at the whole site and all of the offerings. We hope you find it helpful. https://bit.ly/CVSDAprilBreak

CVU has developed their own experiences for students who choose to participate.

Our foodservice teams are working through their April vacation week in order to continue to provide free meals for all children 18 and under. Go to the CVSD website or use this link https://bit.ly/FoodserviceCVSD to find the order form or call your school’s food service director.

Updated COVID-19 Information 

https://bit.ly/CVSDCovid

We have reorganized the section on our website with information about COVID-19. This information can be found on the front of the district’s website and on as each school’s site as well. It includes pages about foodservice, remote learning, technology, and all of our past communications. We’ve added a new link to a Help Form for families needing any kind of support, which can also be found here: https://bit.ly/COVIDhelpform

Please let us know if there is anything additional you’d like to see on the website.

CVSDStrong

Wow, there are so many examples from our schools and families of how we’re staying strong throughout this period of time! Schools are organizing ways in which teachers show their dedication and positive spirit. Families are brought close together, on many levels, and are creatively making the best of it. Here’s the latest collection in a CVSDStrong video: https://youtu.be/QSj4Hz1O8IA

Share yours here: https://bit.ly/CVSDStrong


Thank you again for your unwavering support, encouragement, and outlook. We will all get through this together and come out stronger than we ever were before.

~ The Champlain Valley School District Administration

Next Steps Toward Remote Learning

April 3, 2020

Dear CVSD Community,

We would like to provide families with some additional information regarding our remote learning. From the period starting April 13th until school reopens, CVSD will transition to a remote learning environment that provides all students with access to new learning and feedback on this learning. Based on guidance from the Agency of Education, we will continue to follow our school calendar for the rest of the year, including April vacation. The final day of school in June is still being determined.

In the next week, teachers will continue to plan for this transition, as directed by the Agency of Education. We have incorporated many pieces of information into our planning - the feedback of CVSD families on last week’s survey, guidance and directives from the Agency of Education, and collaborative work across all CVSD schools.

In developing our Continuity of Education Plan, we have kept the following 4 Guiding Principles, identified in the VT Agency of Education’s Continuation of Learning Plan Tool at the forefront:

1. Health and Safety. Doing everything that we can to support the health, safety, and wellbeing of our students and their families is our top priority. This includes but is not limited to providing nutritious foods, promoting opportunities for physical wellness, and providing social-emotional and mental health support for all of our students
2. Equity. This crisis affects everyone but will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable students. Equity should be at the forefront of all planning and implementation.
3. Relationships. Making connections and maintaining relationships are at the foundation of all implementation plans. Set a schedule that includes faculty and staff connecting with students as frequently as possible
4. Remote Learning. Remote learning does not exclusively mean online learning. Districts should consider the variable abilities of families to access and utilize the internet and the impacts of increased screen time expectations. Students should not be required to access devices for the traditional length of the school day. Leverage other opportunities for students to learn, such as exploring their outdoor environment (to an extent that is within public health parameters), engaging in self-driven projects and problem-solving, and (virtually) reaching out to their communities.

Faculty and staff members are currently designing learning plans that honor these principles. Designing learning that is “just right” for students and families is challenging, as it can vary from student-to-student and family-to-family dependent upon circumstances. Based on national recommendations and consultation with districts across our region, plans will be designed with the following goals in mind:

• PreK: (30-45 minutes daily), with additional suggested opportunities
• K-4: (1-2 hours daily total, including instruction, practice, Essential Arts), with additional suggested opportunities
• 5-8: (2-3 hours daily total, including instruction, practice, Essential Arts), with additional suggested opportunities
• 9-12: (3-4 hours daily total)
• Weekly opportunities for teacher check-ins, feedback, and support

It’s important to note that designing learning that aligns with these recommendations is an inexact science. To that end,

• Faculty and staff will work to provide additional learning opportunities for those interested
• Faculty, staff, and administration will also work with students and families to adjust expectations, when necessary, to ensure students experience learning that is sensitive to the needs of the learners and their families.

As we all learn to work in an online virtual world, our teachers are learning as well. We appreciate the patience you have shown as we continue to improve our remote learning practices. More specific information about the shifts from our current Maintenance of Learning phase to the Remote Learning phase will be shared by schools and teachers with families and students.

Food

As stated in the message that went out earlier this week, the USDA relaxed its foodservice rules which now allows us to offer free meals to anyone age 18 and younger who resides in Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St George, or Williston.

We are currently providing meal pick up service on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings in all five of our towns. This flyer provides information about the pick-up locations and links to order your meals.

https://bit.ly/CVSDRemoteFood

In order to ensure we have enough meals at each location, we ask that you pre-order before 8:00 AM on the day of pick up, but if you can’t, please come anyway and we’ll do all we can to send you home with meals. If you have trouble accessing the form, you can call in an order. In fact, if you are having any trouble at all accessing these meals, please reach out to us, we can help.

#CVSDStrong

Thank you again to those who have shared examples of how we’re staying strong during this challenging time. If you would like to contribute, please use this form:  https://bit.ly/CVSDStrong

Here’s the latest collection of images and short video clips from the CVSD community.

https://youtu.be/SVbGxu1kryQ


Stay well everyone,

The Champlain Valley School District Administration

Transitioning to Remote Learning

March 29, 2020

In this update:

• Next steps in education
• Maintenance of Learning Survey coming early this week
• Remote Learning Plans for Students on Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
• Food Service Links

As you all know, Governor Scott recently announced that we will not return to in-person schooling the remainder of the school year. This news has saddened us all. Students, please know that we all miss spending time with you in our hallways, classrooms, cafeterias, buses, and athletic fields. We miss your smiles, your laughter, your curiosity, and your intellect. It’s easy to argue our schools are the souls of our communities.

While it’s understandable to be grieving this loss of school as we know it, it’s important to remember we are all still here for one another. It isn’t the buildings that make our schools so special; it’s the people in them. Those people are hard at work for you. They are learning new ways to support, teach, and inspire you. We cannot allow the distance between us to erode the strong bonds we have so carefully created together, one relationship at a time.

The Agency of Education is requiring all districts to transition from what you’ve all been experiencing this past week (Maintenance of Learning Phase) to Remote Learning by April 13, 2020. This means the focus shifts from an emphasis on preventing regression to an emphasis on continuous learning. This also means teachers, staff members, and administrators will be preparing new learning for the remainder of the school year. We will need the time between now and April 13 to learn, collaborate, design, and communicate, all while continuing to support the Maintenance of Learning phase.

Maintenance of Learning Survey

Families of students in our PreK-8 schools will receive a survey early this week from your school. CVU students were asked to complete this late last week. If you have more than one child in our schools, we request that you fill out the survey separately for each child, We encourage you to involve your child(ren) in completing the survey. Their voice matters. The survey will help inform us as we transition to the next phase. Please complete the survey as soon as possible, but by Thursday at the very latest.

Remote Learning Plans for Students on Individual Education Plans (IEPs)

Now that we have a date certain when CVSD schools will transition to Remote Learning, IEP teams will more formally begin the process of developing plans for providing accommodations, supports, and services remotely. As we shared last week, teams have already been working to brainstorm how services and accommodations could occur during this time, in addition to the work already being done to support maintenance of learning. We have also been awaiting guidance from the Agency of Education about any specific formatting requirements for these Plans.

Over the next week or two, case managers will begin reaching out to families to discuss the development of a Remote Learning Plan. This is an additional opportunity to discuss how the Maintenance of Learning phase has gone for students with unique learning needs, including what access supports were successful and what challenges still exist. Please be sure to look for a survey from your school to help gather this information. In addition, your child’s case manager can discuss your child’s more specific needs with you. All of this information will be essential to inform the development of Remote Learning Plans.

As is true for all students (but particularly those with unique learning needs), this time of remote learning will require patience, creative thinking, and different “iterations” of plans as we discover what works and does not work. Rest assured that your teams are working diligently to support your student, just as they do when students are in the building.

Food Service Reminder

Pick-up service continues on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Please click on the link for the most convenient location (regardless of which school your student attends) and fill out your order for the week. CVU students may pick up at any of the locations. https://bit.ly/CVSDRemoteFood

Orders will include both breakfast and lunch. This week we are adding a chef’s salad and homemade Macaroni and Cheese to the lunch entree choices! Each meal includes fresh vegetables, fruit or juice, a snack and choice of milk. Sandwiches can be made gluten-free.

If you have trouble with the form or need any additional assistance in accessing meals, please contact your school or local foodservice director directly. We are here to help!

CVSD Stays Strong

We continue to receive fabulous examples of how we’re staying strong through challenging times. Thank you! Share yours at this link: https://bit.ly/CVSDStrong

View the latest collection submitted by members of our community here: https://youtu.be/-G81BM8aspk

We need each other now, maybe more than ever. We need you to take care of yourselves, take care of your families, and take care of your community. We will do all we can to support you in those efforts, and we will continue to learn, grow, and succeed… together.

The Champlain Valley School District Administration