Evan Sivo Named CVSD’s Behavior Systems Director

 

Evan Sivo has been appointed Behavior Systems Director for the Champlain Valley School District (CVSD). Mr. Sivo will begin his leadership duties on July 1, 2022.

The Behavior Systems Director is responsible for overseeing the CVSD ATLAS program (a highly specialized special education program for students with social-emotional disabilities) as well as working with CVSD leaders to provide district-wide leadership in the development of our systems of support for students who struggle with social-emotional learning (SEL). This position will help move forward the work of implementing our SEL systems of support.

Mr. Sivo graduated from Saint Michael’s College with a Bachelor of Arts in History, and a Master of Education degree in Special Education. He earned a post-graduate Certificate of Study in the Florida Institute of Technology’s Behavior Analysis Graduate Certificate program.

Evan joined CVSD in August of 2016 as a special educator at the Hinesburg Community School. He moved to the role of ATLAS Program Coordinator and Behavior Specialist in 2019. Prior to joining CVSD, Evan worked with the Howard Center as a behavior interventionist, a teacher interventionist, and a classroom teacher at the Baird School, where he earned an Excellence in Service Award.

Evan had this to say about assuming this new role in CVSD, “I am excited for the opportunity to examine our Multi-Tiered System of Supports and further the development of SEL. I believe social, emotional, and behavioral well-being is imperative to a student's success and leads to greater academic outcomes.“

CVSD’s Director of Student Support Services, Meagan Roy, shared, “Evan Sivo (the current lead special educator of the ATLAS program), a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and special educator, brings extensive expertise in social-emotional learning and behavioral systems. The committee was most impressed with his firm commitment to ensuring that our classrooms are accessible to all learners. We are excited for Evan to take on this new leadership role.”

We are very excited to welcome Evan on July 1.

Brett Cluff Named Shelburne Co-Principal

 

We are pleased to share that Brett Cluff has been appointed as the Shelburne Community School Co-Principal for grades 5-8. He will jointly lead with Alison Celmer. He follows Scott Sivo, who is moving on to a position in another district at the end of this school year. Brett will assume his leadership duties on July 1, 2022.

SCS PreK-4 principal Alison Celmer is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Brett. “I'm excited to welcome Brett Cluff back to CVSD. As someone who received his education through our school system at Charlotte Central School and Champlain Valley Union High School, he brings a unique perspective to the district from being a student to becoming a leader. Brett also brings a new perspective to our district based on his previous experiences in different educational settings outside of Vermont. He is calm, consistent, and a great listener who values kindness, collaboration, and flexibility aligning well with my values of kindness, belonging, and growth. I look forward to collaborating with Brett as his family settles into the Shelburne community!”

Mr. Cluff’s recent leadership roles as an assistant principal and senior instructional coach in the New York City public schools prepare him well for this role. He also taught 5th grade in New York and most recently, 6th grade math and science in Essex Junction, Vermont.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College, a Master of Arts in Teaching from Pace University, and a Master of Arts in Education Policy and Social Analysis from Teachers College at Columbia University. He earned an Advanced Certificate from the City University of New York - Bernard Baruch College. Brett is originally from Charlotte, Vermont, and is a product of CVSD schools.

Superintendent Rene Sanchez enthusiastically welcomes Cluff, “We are excited for CVSD native, Brett Cluff, to take the helm of Shelburne Community school. His local roots and the administrative experience he gained while working in New York City Public Schools will both be of great value to Shelburne Community School and CVSD. “

Brett shared his excitement about this new opportunity with us, “As a graduate of CVSD schools and parent of soon-to-be SCS students, I am thrilled to be joining the SCS community as co-principal. It is an honor to have been selected, and I look forward to working in partnership with all students, staff members, and families to continue the tradition of excellence that's been established at SCS over the years."

We all look forward to welcoming Brett officially as the SCS co-principal on July 1.

Cookies Are Great... Right?

Who doesn’t want a free cookie? Well, it depends on what kind we’re offering. In addition to chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin, another type of cookie was distributed to some CVU students last week. Read on to learn more.

A few weeks ago, CVU 9th grade student Alex Fox, as part of research about cybersecurity for a Nexus project, shared a survey with all students at CVU. The goal was to see what they knew and thought about a number of topics. Some of the questions included: What are computer cookies? What do you do when you get a cookie pop-up? What is two-factor authentication? Should passwords for all accounts be the same? What do you do when you get spam? What is cybersecurity, why might it be important, and what are the potential benefits and negatives of cybersecurity? Alex reports that they had over 60 responses to the survey and that most people who responded knew very little about cybersecurity.

That survey whet the appetite to help people learn more about computer or internet cookies. Faculty members of CVU’s technology integration committee, led by digital learning leader Charlie MacFadyen, decided to engage students in a related activity to help them learn about internet cookies, using real cookies.

On Monday, May 9, during the lunch blocks at CVU, students were offered a free cookie. All the students had to do to get the cookie was fill out a one-question form. They were asked “Which best describes you?” with options around whether they liked dogs, cats, both, or neither. When filling out the form, it automatically collected their email address. By the way, special thanks goes out to the Redhawk Cafe staff for the delicious cookies!

About 300 students filled out the survey to get a cookie. CVU advisors were told of this activity ahead of time and were asked not to share what it was about with students until later in the week.

On Wednesday, students who filled out the form got an email that looked something like this, depending on their answer to the form.

Hi _____________,

We hope you enjoyed your cookie in the cafeteria!

And since you're a dog person, here's a picture of some adorable puppies. By the way, we also shared your information with dogs.com, so you may be getting their ads soon*.

*Just kidding-- we didn't really share your info with anyone! But guess what? When you accept cookies on the internet, this is often what happens. Cookies are files that save information about your activity on a website. So-called first-party cookies can be helpful so that sites "remember" you the next time you visit (for example, knowing what preferences you chose or what's in your shopping cart). But when you agree to third-party cookies, you allow websites to share your information with other websites (often, for targeted ads). Next time you're asked to "accept all cookies" on a website, try clicking the option to learn more and choose what you agree to.

At the end of the week, ALL students got an email with the general information about this activity. Advisors were asked to show a video (see the first link below) to their advisories and then pose some questions to get the discussion about the experience going. Some teachers reported that these were valuable conversations.

Hopefully, this will help inform more of you about computer cookies, and maybe you’ll think twice before deciding whether or not to accept one next time.

Learn more here:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdVPflECed8
• https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/10/18656519/what-are-cookies-website-tracking-gdpr-privacy
• https://youtu.be/HFyaW50GFOs
• https://cookie-script.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-third-party-cookies.html

Thank you to the CVU technology integration committee for sharing this with us!

The CVSD Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy Program

 Here's a guest post from our English Learner teachers at Williston Central School (Melita Sedic-Lawton and Susan Heston Simpson) and Shelburne Community School (Robyn Suarez and Erika Monaghan). 

The English Language (EL) Team is proud to announce that students in Williston Central School (WCS) and Shelburne Community School (SCS) have been attending heritage language classes as a part of the Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy Program. The Pathway program sets students up for receiving the Seal of Biliteracy when they graduate from high school. The Seal of Biliteracy is a nationwide award that recognizes a high school student’s achievement of a high level of proficiency in English plus another language. At graduation, students get the Seal marked on their diplomas, and their high school transcripts would also note this huge accomplishment. In fact, last year the Seal of Biliteracy was awarded to one student at CVU upon graduation, and this year a student will receive the Seal for biliteracy for English and Nepali.

At WCS, eleven students are taking classes in Chinese, Nepali and Russian, while at SCS, five students are taking Chinese. There is no expense for families. Lessons are once a week after school, and students take the late bus home.

As a pilot program this year, we limited participation to our EL students and focused on just three languages. We would love to expand what is offered next year, as well as include a wider audience. Next year, we are hoping to expand the program by hiring more heritage language instructors and having more students take advantage of this opportunity. We have been so happy with how smoothly things have gone thus far, and feel that we are in a good place to really take off next year!

The Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy is offered in elementary and middle school and then the Seal of Biliteracy is actually awarded to students once they show competency in two languages in their junior or senior year. They can pursue the Seal through the Nexus program. For more information on the Seal of Biliteracy at the high school level, please contact Johanna Shaw-Daniels in the CLD center at CVU or through email jshawdaniels@cvsdvt.org.

Here are some photos of our students taking classes with Ms. Anna Sun, Mr. Phub Lama, and Maria Kapetanovic, who is also the school nurse at WCS.

at WCS

at WCS

Anna Sun teaching characters with flash cards at SCS

An SCS student working on a letter to her pen pal at WCS.

Maria K, the Russian instructor, works with students at WCS.

Thank you to our EL teachers for their efforts to get this program off the ground and for sharing this with the larger CVSD community.

May 9, 2022 COVID Reminders

Dear Champlain Valley School District Families and Caregivers,

You may be aware that Vermont is experiencing a spike in COVID cases that public health experts anticipate will continue through the next several weeks. Because our schools are a reflection of the communities we serve, we are seeing a similar increase in cases in all of our CVSD schools. We anticipate that these higher case counts will continue through this current state-wide surge. Notifications from our schools continue to go out to those impacted.

We wanted to send along some reminders:

• Our schools and offices are mask-friendly. Anyone is welcome to wear masks at any time and should always feel comfortable doing so. Please consider your personal risk factors when determining what is right for your family.
• COVID symptoms may be mild and mistaken for allergies, especially at this time of year. If your student is experiencing any symptoms, please keep them home from school until they are feeling better. If you need help accessing COVID testing, please contact your school’s Health Office or the Vermont Department of Health.
• If your child tests positive, please keep your child home and follow the steps in What to Do if You Test Positive for COVID-19 .
• Please inform not only classroom teachers/advisors, but also the Health Office in your school.
• Please refer to this document which outlines when your child can return to school.
• Home test kits will be made available to any families who request them. Please reach out to your school’s Health Office.
• We continue to update our COVID dashboard each week.

As always, monitor your child for symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status. If your child has any symptoms of COVID-19, keep them home from school until they are feeling better and consider getting tested. The most common COVID symptoms that we are currently seeing in our schools include headache, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea/vomiting, and diarrhea.

If you have any further questions, you can reach out to the Health Office in your school or use our Let’s Talk page to share your thoughts.

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Rene Sanchez, Superintendent

CVSD Update, May 8, 2022

 

Dear CVSD Families, Caregivers, Faculty, and Staff,

Happy Mother's Day! We hope that you will take the time to view our latest newsletter. It includes: 

• Information about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
• A survey for families and caregivers to share thoughts for our equity audit
• An update about hiring
• CVSD's COVID Recovery Plan, Phase III
• Let's Talk and CVSD Kudos
• and more!

Thank you for taking the time to read it and stay informed. 

 

Artistic Collaboration Across Schools

 Here's a guest post from Abbie Bowker, visual arts teacher at CVU. 

Abbie Bowker's three sections of Ceramics recently completed a collaborative art project with Lorien Leyden's Hinesburg Community School first graders. The first graders were asked by their art teacher, Lorien Leyden, to make up a "creature" including a drawing of that creature and some other attributes (where they live, what they eat, what they like, etc.). 

The young students sent these along to the CVU students as a type of "call to action" as they needed to then turn around and make something inspired by those artworks. Ms. Bowker's CVU students chose to make a wide variety of things out of clay for their first graders as a "response" to the "call to action" - the creature itself, or the house it lives in, boots to keep their feet dry, food to eat, etc. 

CVU students visited HCS on Friday 4/29 to deliver the artwork. Apparently the first graders started screaming with excitement when they saw the bus! As you can imagine, the exchange was adorable with smiles all around! We hope the project will be featured in an upcoming CVU show, including footage of the delivery. Here are a couple of photos to whet the appetite.