Crossing Generations

Here's a guest post from Justine Benoit, grade 1 and 2 teacher in Harmony House at the Allen Brook School. 

First and second grade students in Harmony House have become pen pals with some very special people. They are writing to residents of the Wake Robin community in Shelburne. What began as a fun way to connect with the community outside of our school has become much more. Students are learning through the whole group, the teacher-led writing, and small group shared writing experiences. More importantly, they are learning about exciting experiences the residents have had. Mrs. Benoit's classroom had been reading a biography of Helen Keller. The most exciting surprise was receiving a letter from a resident that had met Helen Keller!

We asked residents of Wake Robin what they thought about student pen pals:

“I just plain love kids. They are my forte. I love when they ask me questions that others might not think of asking.” 

“ I love this activity. It brings all of us closer as human beings.”

We asked students why they enjoyed having pen pals:

"It's fun to see what they've gotten to do."

"We get to know people that we don't actually know."

"I like knowing someone that knows someone we've been studying about ." ( Helen Keller)

"Because we can be nice."

"I think how they are smarter than us and have done stuff in the old fashioned days and I want to learn. I want to learn about how they played and stuff."

Harmony House applied for a grant and will be visiting our pen pals in the spring. Making slime together is the plan!

Valentines that students sent to Wake Robin residents.

Valentines that Wake Robin residents sent to students.

March 6, 2020 Update

March 6, 2020

Dear CVSD Families:

With the increased intensity of news reports and social media posts regarding the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19), comes speculation about the impact this virus may eventually have on school communities. It is important for you to know the most accurate and timely information about this health concern.

We continue to work at the district level to ensure that we are planning appropriate precautionary steps while we work through this possible health and safety challenge. We are working closely with the Vermont Department of Health. Over the past several days, we have spent hours researching and in conversation with health authorities and the Agency of Education learning how they can help school districts in Vermont prepare for any possible health emergencies.

The safety of our students and staff is our priority. Please be assured that we are working with individual families who seek guidance and those who express concerns. What we are able to provide is the latest information that comes from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the State Department, the World Health Organization and the Vermont Department of Health. This is a very fluid situation and the sites are updated regularly. We recommend you bookmark those sites so you can check them as you feel the need.

We have open and effective lines of communication with our public health officials and the Vermont Agency of Education and will alert students, staff, and parents if we receive direction related to COVID-19. Any potential school closing (and reopening) due to illness will be guided by public health officials. While education is important, the health and wellbeing of our students and staff are far more significant.

As a reminder, please use these preventative hygiene practices:

• Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for 20 seconds. If not available, use hand sanitizer.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or upper sleeve when coughing or sneezing.
• Avoid contact with people who are sick.
• If you are sick, please stay home and avoid contact with others.

According to public health officials, the way COVID-19 is spread is very similar to the flu and common colds. For this reason, we are encouraging our students and staff to actively wash their hands and take all of the same precautions they would normally take to avoid these illnesses. Please encourage your children to do the same at home as they build healthy habits.

We will continue to monitor the situation and update you as we have more information. You can find additional links and information on the District page of our website www.cvsdvt.org. If you have any questions, please email cvsdinformation@cvsdvt.org and we will try to answer as quickly as possible.

Thank you, 

The Champlain Valley School District Administration

March 1, 2020 Welcome Back

March 1, 2020

Dear CVSD Community:

Welcome back from what we hope was a restful and enjoyable break! Typically, Sundays before the return to school after a vacation provide mixed feelings for students, families, and educators alike; no matter how excited we may be, there is a normal level of anxiousness as we head back to work. For some, those feelings of nervousness are heightened after the recent outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent media attention that follows.

We write to let you know that CVSD is working with the Agency of Education and Department of Health to ensure we are appropriately informed and prepared if COVID-19 cases are reported. As of February 28, there were no cases of people with COVID-19 in Vermont; in addition, as of today, there have been no cases reported in CVSD. As was shared with us in a recent letter by Secretary Dan French, it is important to note that at this point, Vermont residents are much more likely to become sick with a cold or the flu than to be exposed to COVID-19. Many of the precautions that help prevent other respiratory diseases, like colds and the flu, can also help keep an illness like COVID-19 from spreading:

• Frequent handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with your sleeve or a tissue. Throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

While the above is comforting in the short term, please know that we would rather be over-prepared than under and will share the information we learn going forward. For those who would like to learn more, please see the links below:


Vermont Department of Health Resource

What you need to know-COVID-19

COVID-19 Travel Resource


Thank You,


The Champlain Valley School District Administration

CVSD Leads the Way - Penguin Plunge 2020

Braving the cool waters of Lake Champlain on Saturday, February 1, were almost 300 representatives from the Champlain Valley School District. Students, teachers, principals, and family members plunged into the lake to support and raise funds for Vermont Special Olympics. 

The final tallies are still coming in, but the effort was once again a resounding success. CVU's group and Williston's remain in the fundraising lead for school teams, according to the Penguin Plunge Cool Schools site. This was the first year that all CVSD schools were represented.

Here are fundraising totals for our school teams as of now:
CVU: $34,370
Williston: $15,786
Hinesburg: $8,037
Shelburne: $7264
Charlotte: $1,500

That's a grand total of $66,957!

Thank you to all who participated and devoted their time and energy to this amazing event. Here's a very small sampling of photos from that day.

Hinesburg's Penguin Plunge Team

Williston's Penguin Plunge Team

CCS Penguin Plunge Team

CVSD Capital Construction Bond on the Ballot

On the ballot for Town Meeting Day, March 3, not only will there be articles about the school district’s proposed budget, fund balance, and school buses, but this year there will also be an article about the proposed Capital Construction Bond. We will be providing more information about the other articles in upcoming posts, but we wanted to share details about the proposed bond with our communities as soon as possible. We hope to answer some immediate questions below. More information about the proposed budget and bond can be found on the Budget page of the CVSD website, www.cvsdvt.org/budget.

What is the process used to determine capital improvements? How does it get determined what work fits in the regular school district operations budget and what needs to be on a bond?

Long-range capital maintenance plans and priorities for each school are developed and refreshed by the district’s Property Services Team. These plans are reviewed each September with building principals for completeness on maintenance items and any additions related to instructional delivery

The CVSD Property Services Manager and district COO review the list in October determining which items can be:

• funded through the operational budget
• funded with existing construction funds
• large projects grouped for potential biennial bond requests

Priorities are reviewed with facilities managers and building administration.

The entire 5-year plan is reviewed with the Finance and Facilities committee during budget development. A summary of the capital projects is reviewed with the Board during the operations budget presentation.


CVSD is a consolidated district. What does that mean for homeowners in each of our towns?

As a consolidated district, residents in all CVSD towns share responsibility for all district facilities; approving and paying for all bonds. Deferring these necessary maintenance repairs will only delay them to another year when they will be more expensive. The proposed bond is projected to cost a homeowner $10 per year for each $100,000 of assessed value before accounting for income sensitivity adjustments or CLA. (Common Level of Appraisal)


What is included in the proposed bond? How are schools in all of our towns impacted?

• At Hinesburg, we are addressing deteriorating parking lots and sidewalks, and upgrading the air quality on the second floor of the main building.
• At CVU, the bond will fund energy efficiency improvements in the 1981 wing, overdue field drainage improvements on two natural grass fields and a resurfacing of the 15-year-old track.
• At Shelburne Community School, funds will be used to bring the cafeteria’s kitchen into compliance with current code and to repave the parking and drop off / pick-up lot on School Street.
• And at the Allen Brook School, the bond will fund a fire alarm system upgrade to current life/safety code and additional multiple improvements needed to improve security.

The remainder of the bond will focus on critical repairs and upgrades at Charlotte Central School needed to maintain the health of students and staff and eliminating an astonishing waste of energy. The project consists of sealing the envelope of the main classroom wing – new windows, doors, insulation and cladding – and replacing the existing outdated air handling units with high-efficiency energy recovery ventilators. We encourage everyone to go to the CVSD Capital Construction website and view the presentation shared on January 21, 2020, by architects Dore & Whittier, along with other materials. There you will find infrared photos where you can almost see gallons of fuel oil being wasted as heat flows out through single-pane windows and uninsulated structural beams.

Additional information can be found on the Capital Construction website, linked from the CVSD Budget page. www.cvsdvt.org/budget


Why are voters just hearing about this bond proposal now?

The CVSD Board has committed to putting the district on a path to a sustainable capital funding strategy to minimize costs and stabilize tax impacts. After a period of catching up, the vision is to present district voters with consistent, small investment requests – stewardship bonds – prioritized to eliminate the need for the large construction projects we have seen in the past, and our neighbors are experiencing now. In the short term though, the investment requests will be a bit higher as we clear up deferred maintenance problems.

Our physical assets are managed by a team of highly-skilled, and very busy, facilities managers. One of the CVSD School Board’s first acts after consolidation was to centralize the facilities team in order to achieve operational efficiencies and take advantage of economies of scale. The board also addressed how to manage and prioritize capital needs.

While Shelburne Community School and Williston Central School had significant deferred maintenance problems that were addressed with their recent bonds, the CVSD board has directed that we respect the tax burden already in place in our community by holding the cost of the first phase of the Charlotte project to a minimum. We are not alone in facing the reality of a backlog of deferred maintenance as Burlington ($70M), Winooski ($58M), South Burlington ($209M) and in fact, the rest of Vermont are all struggling to maintain school facilities in the face of the 13-year moratorium on school construction aid. We are grateful that our own needs are on a much smaller scale.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. Please direct any further questions to the CVSD School Board cvsdboard@cvsdvt.org

Berlin City Supports Literacy

Berlin City Auto Group, announced its January grant donation of $83,845 awarded on behalf of its “Drive for Education” (DFE) program. The program, in its tenth year, uses proceeds from area car sales to fund grants awarded to neighboring schools.

This year 46 schools in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will be receiving grants. Two Champlain Valley School District Schools, the Allen Brook School and Hinesburg Community School, were among the grant recipients.

At the Allen Brook School, librarian Cara Clopton was awarded $1000 for the purchase of new library books and will host a Family Reading Night this spring.

ABS librarian Cara Clopton and students

Hinesburg's kindergarten teacher, Miranda Johnson, was also awarded $1000 which will be used to purchase books for HCS kindergarteners to bring home and read over the summer, helping them practice and maintain the wonderful skills they have learned all year long. 

Miranda Johnson and her kindergarten class from HCS

Congratulations!

Annual Legislative Breakfast

Early yesterday morning, we were honored to have a number of Vermont legislators that represent towns in our district visit for breakfast and conversation. Seven legislators and seven school board members from the Champlain Valley School District joined CVSD leaders for a rich discussion on a variety of topics that impact our schools.

Attending this year were: Terry Macaig, Mike Yantachka, Bill Lippert, Jessica Brumsted, Kate Webb, Jim McCullough, and Debbie Ingram (not pictured).

CVSD School Board members included: Lynne Jaunich, Ray Mainer, Jeff Martin, Angela Arsenault, Brendan McMahon, Colleen MacKinnon, and Kelly Bowen.

The CVSD leadership and Board asked questions about Act 46 consolidation, Health Care, School Choice, and the weighting study. There was discussion around Act 77, specifically focused on proficiency and personalization.

Representative Kate Webb, who is also the chair of the House Education Committee, shared some issues before the legislature. These include:

• Act 166 - PreK
• Literacy
• Oversight of the Agency of Education
• Status of the State Board of Education
• Construction
• The weighting study
• A focus on funding after school programs, which was just announced by the Governor in his State of the State address. 

Representative Jessica Brumsted serves on the House Health and Human Services committee. She shared that they are working on children's integrated services (occupational therapy, physical therapy, audiology, etc.), as well as looking at official programs that support foster children. She also stated that they are exploring the ban of all flavored cigarettes, including e-cigarettes.

The legislators were very positive about the great things happening in CVSD schools and feel that there are many examples that warrant sharing with their various committees and constituents.

We learned a great deal and gained valuable perspective from the conversation. We truly appreciate the time and hard work that all of our visitors contribute on behalf of the staff and students across the state.