CCS readies for a new year

On August 29, Charlotte Central School (CCS) will be welcoming students back for the 2018-2019 school year.  Teachers and staff members are looking forward to getting to know several new students and families joining our CCS community.  

CCS has had a few transitions within teaching and staff positions. We are happy to welcome the following staff to CCS:

  • Shannon Spellman – transitioning to Grade 1 Long Term Substitute position this year
  • Stephanie Murray – Literacy Coach/Coordinator, Long Term Substitute position
  • Reina Guarnaccia – 0.5 FTE World Language (Spanish, Grades 5-8)
  • Allan Miller, Digital Learning Leader/Proficiency and Personalized Learning Coach
  • Angie Morin – Special Educator, Grades 5-6
  • Janelle Moynihan – Speech Language Pathologist (SLP)
  • Elizabeth Kehr – General Education Para-Educator 
  • Lin Warren – General Education Para-Educator 
  • Mike Hulvey – Athletics Director

CCS wishes the very best to the following educators as they begin new endeavors within the Champlain Valley School District:

  • Tica Netherwood, World Language at CVU
  • Trish Healy, Special Educator at CVU
  • Nancy Wood, Early Education SLP
  • Mary Muroski, Grade 5 at Hinesburg Community School

Many improvements, upgrades and moves have occurred over the summer months. Several classroom moves took place to continue to best support high levels of teaming and collaboration. Permanent walls have been installed between several classrooms in the elementary wing, replacing the folding walls previously in place.  CCS will continue to replace the folding walls in the coming years. Additionally, new ceiling tiles have been put into several classrooms. CCS also has installed new boilers.

The start of the school year is always an exciting time. This year CCS will continue to delve deeper into proficiency based learning at all grade levels, with other endeavors taking route in the elementary grades and the middle grades.  Grades K-4 will be implementing Second Step®, a curricular program and approach rooted in Social-Emotional Learning. Second Step is a research-based program designed to support schools in developing supportive and successful learning environments that help all children thrive. Second Step is endorsed by CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Focusing on Social-Emotional Learning has long-term benefits for students across academics, behaviors, attitudes and skills. The K-4 faculty will be focused on common themes, lessons, language/terms and focus areas of skill development to support an increased sense of safety and respect that is rooted in the social-emotional health and well-being of the entire CCS school community.

Grades 5-8 are continuing their focus on personalized learning, working with UVM’s Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education. Some call it a Transformational Learning Network and to others it’s The Learning Lab 2018. Allan Miller (Digital Learning Leader and CCS Instructional Coach), Natasha Grey (6th Grade Social Sciences and Math), Marley Evans (7/8th Grade Humanities), and Jen Roth (Co-Principal and Middle-Level Instructional Leader) have committed to a year, long inquiry into the instructional practices and learning culture at CCS, while welcoming other cohort members from around the state to be part of this learning through visits and digital sharing of our work. 

At the end of this transformational experience, CCS will have documented the evolution to each of our inquiry questions focusing on personalization.  The facilitators and coaches, Bill Rich of Red House Learning and Susan Hennessey from the Tarrant Institute of Innovative Learning, describe the Learning Lab as “a group of intrepid risk-takers coming together in a community of connected learners to help answer a few burning questions about this thing called personalized learning here in Vermont. We learn together and with our students through hosting and attending site visits in schools; through blended learning ecosystems including online conversations in a blog and via Slack; and through physical gatherings including overnight retreats and Saturday sessions throughout the school year.”

CCS questions include

  • What is personalization?
  • What, exactly, are teachers and students doing in settings that are becoming increasingly personalized?
  • What are the best ways to develop the systemic capacity that schools need to get personalization right?

It is an exciting time to be a learner at CCS! Enjoy these last days of summer and we look forward to seeing you very soon.