In recognition of this celebratory and potentially dangerous time of year (prom and graduation season), Connecting Youth in Champlain Valley School District has held student and community awareness activities across the district throughout the month of April.
CCS students from grades 6–8 put on several wonderful performances of the classic show Annie Jr. between Thursday, April 12, and Saturday, April 14. CCS drama students have been rehearsing since January, under the guidance of Director Allison Talis.
The story of my trip to D.C. began with a message from a CVU alumnus, Josh Ravit. Mr. Ravit, like so many others, was moved by the events in Parkland and wanted students from his former high school to participate in the call for action. Until his call I had not anticipated that CVU would be able to participate in the March for Our Lives in D.C. But he assured me that together we could raise the money necessary.
On March 8, members of Charlotte Grange #398 presented personalized student dictionaries to all 37 students in the CCS 3rd grade. Our Grange’s participation in the Dictionary Project, or “Words for Thirds” as it is popularly known, has been ongoing for 15 years and is a highlight of the school year for these budding scholars. Teacher Kathy Lara has seen it unfold over the years; both she and teacher Linda Poirier enjoyed the excitement of the presentation and subsequent exploration of the books with their students.
One might argue that being a principal (or an educator in any capacity) during this time is challenging, to say the least. In the weeks since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, CCS, along with other schools across America, has grappled with how to respond to the most recent acts of threats and violence in American schools. Despite the amazing amount of work that has been done to implement greater measures of safety in our schools, we have once again been catapulted into an acute need to respond in a way that takes care of all of our students, teachers and staff members.
Snow may have delayed the plans of Champlain Valley Union High School students to take part in the national walkout against gun violence on March 14, but it certainly didn’t stop them altogether. In spite of freezing temperatures, they kept true to their plans and filed out of CVU’s classrooms two days later, on Friday, March 16.
Mater Christi School’s Bulldog robotics team was one of only two middle school teams to compete against 30 high school teams in the First Tech Challenge Regional Championship at Essex High School on February 24. Mater Christi School students engineered, built and coded a robot in compliance with competition specifications and successfully constructed an operable robot that they were able to control and maneuver.
The Champlain Valley School District has been working with Natasha Grey and her 6th-grade students at CCS for the past few weeks. The students took part in a NASA mission called Sally Ride EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), a NASA educational outreach program that enables students, teachers and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space.
On February 14, 2018, there was a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen lives were taken and 17 more people were injured. On March 10, administrators at Charlotte Central School sent an email to the school community that said that awareness and interest had grown from middle school students about the walk-outs held across the country.
After the outbreak of school violence in Parkland, Florida, and our own threats closer to home in Vermont, I’m reaching out to assure you that the safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. While statistically, school shootings remain rare, these horrific incidents focus our attention on critical security needs and cause us to re-evaluate our safety plans.
For children between the ages of three and five who reside in Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, St. George and Williston, now enrolling for the 2018-19 school year.
Six students at Champlain Valley Union District High School (and one who weighed-in via email) gathered recently to discuss their responses to the mass shooting at Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14. All of the students agreed that their initial reaction to the news of the shooting was that it was “just another in a long line of school shootings,” but that this one, this time, has become a game-changer, with the voices of so many students being heard now.
The 18th Annual Spring College Fair at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg is happening this year on Monday, April 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. College representatives from across the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions and Canada will be available to speak with both students and parents.
At this time of year the days are a little bit longer and Vermonters all over the state turn their thoughts to…Town Meeting Day. Over the last three months the Board of the Champlain Valley School District, along with district administration and local volunteer “budget buddies,” have put together what we believe is a fiscally conservative yet strategic and forward-thinking budget. On March 6, the voters of our district will be asked to approve our budget and four separate articles to address essential functions.
In response to input about the budget, we have developed the following list of questions and answers. You are also invited to check out our web page at cvsdvt.org/budget or email us at [email protected]. Budget Q: How will my local school budget be voted on now that we are consolidated? A: The funding for all schools is now combined on a single ballot question, which residents will vote on by Australian ballot at their local polling places. On Tuesday, March 6,
The Student Awareness Curriculum & Training (ACT) committee revolves around the principle of preventing sexual violence through a cultural shift at Champlain Valley Union High School. The formation of Student ACT began with the two founding members, Chiara Antonioli and Walter Braun, reaching out to trusted faculty about both the prevalence of this issue and the change they wanted to see within the school. From there, a select 14 students were brought together to create the Student ACT Committee.
The Charlotte-Hinesburg Early Education Program is now accepting applications for a random peer lottery drawing for the 2018–2019 school year. Charlotte and Hinesburg children who will be age 3 or older by September 1, 2018, but not yet 5 years old, are eligible to enter the lottery for our programs.
In early November, several CVU students were involved in a drug deal in Shelburne that turned into a robbery and injured one student. When asked recently about what the school did in response to the incident and the resulting criminal charges, Principal Adam Bunting, said, “CVU enjoys productive relationships with our community partners:
The budget work for the Champlain Valley School District Board continued Tuesday at Shelburne Community School as school directors combed through the proposed budget.
An article on page 14 in the Dec. 13 issue of The Charlotte News, “Commissioner of Taxes Releases FY2019 Education Yield Letter,” quoted Jeanne Jensen, the chief operating officer of the Champlain Valley School District, as saying, “Finally, taxpayers should remember that we will be receiving the second year of our district consolidation tax incentive, which will provide CVSD tax payers with an 8 cent reduction on their tax bill.”