CVU Celebrations

Dear CVU Community: One of the servers working the Winter Ball on Saturday night pulled me aside to say the following: “I’ve worked dozens of these events and I’ve never seen a group of students who were as respectful. I got ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’ and eye contact from everyone.” Our entire school could be achieving 4s on every target, and I wouldn’t be as proud as I am when I hear that our students excel at decency and respect. Conversely, when I see the opposite of those attributes in our own Cafe, I am equally as concerned. Students, the vast majority of you take care of the place. Please hold each other accountable for maintaining respect for our resources and our staff.

2/23 - Winter Carnival

2/26-3/1 - Winter Break, no school

3/14 - CVU Blood Drive

Spirit Week begins on Monday! To hype up our community spirit, Danica Bostwick created the most amazing poster to inform students of each day's spirit theme. Earn points for your class by dressing up in the day's theme and checking-in with a campus supervisor!

Happy Friday CVU, it’s Ariel! Student Council put on Kindness Week this week in an attempt to have the CVU community focus on kindness and love. Each day, Student Council members sat at a table in the cafeteria where students could respond to prompts related to kindness, for example, “What’s an act of kindness you’ve received in the past few days?” Students who responded to the prompts, had their prompts hung up and were entered into a raffle. The winners were announced today. Student Council members also handed out “kindness coupons” to friends and peers throughout the school as another way of getting everyone to think about kindness this week. Next week is spirit week; let’s all show some school spirit and dress up! Monday is PJs and Stuffy Day, Tuesday is Decades Day, Wednesday is Dress Like A Faculty Member Day, Thursday is Surfers vs. Bikers Day, and Friday is Color by Grade Day. Details are on the poster in 4 Corners! Let’s have an awesome last week before break, Hawks!!

From Olaf Verdonk: The Varsity and JV RoboHawks robotics teams compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge an international robotics competition.

This past weekend both teams competed at the Vermont State Robotics Championship held at Lamoille Union High School. Both teams performed with excellence!

The Varsity RoboHawks earned 1st place in the Inspire Award once again due to their outstanding work in STEM outreach to CVSD and the community and their ability to clearly and effectively communicate their engineering design process and growth both in writing and presentation. This most prestigious award qualifies them for the World Championships in Houston in April!

The JV RedHawks earned great reviews from judges as a rookie team and they earned the prestigious Judges Award and a 3rd place in the Connect Award.

In the competition the JV robot performed flawlessly and never had a breakdown!

The Varsity robot performed excellent in all areas and working together in an alliance with South Burlington's robot they were able to win the tournament! They sailed through the Semis beating an alliance between Mater Christi and MMU. Winning best of three (in two) 193 to 68 and 103 to 55. They then went on to dominate the Finals beating an alliance between Saxton River and Manchester! Winning best of three again in two 137 to 64 and 153 to 65.

EXTRA KUDOS goes to James Haines being selected as a FIRST Robotics Dean's List Finalist to represent Vermont at the World Championships! A well deserved honor!

CONGRATULATIONS to both teams who have put in a lot of time and hard work!

Varsity RoboHawks:

James Haines - 11

Addison Hoopes - 12

Andrew Nguyen - 12

Rhett Gardner - 12

Jacob Graham- 11

Will Ackerly - 10

Clay Nicholson - 10

Braden Griffin - 10

Gavin Blackburn - 10

Leo Fluery - 10

Mohamed Elhassan - 12

JV RedHawks

Owen Christman - 9

Miles Bergendahl - 9

Griffin Hengelsberg - 10

Parker Wildey - 9

Ben Gordon - 9

Brady Driver - 9

Student Council's Isabelle Raby and Thomas Mathon organized a community book swap on Thursday evening. If you're looking for a book to read over the break, swing by the Library and grab one of the remaining free books.

Seen from the French 3 classroom Wednesday morning - thank you Genevieve!

From Lizzy Fox Lausier: This past weekend, CVU hosted a debate tournament with 23 teams from 10 schools. Zorah Ngu and Leonie Schwetlick came in first place for the second tournament in a row! Yvonne Miceler and Zoe Mui were in 6th place, and novices Ace Zappala and Nolan Ross had a strong tournament with a win against a team of experienced juniors. The CVU's Debate Team will spend the next month preparing to debate the topic for the state championship - Resolved: In the United States, collegiate student-athletes should be classified as employees of their educational institution.

From Samantha Kayhart: We are thrilled to announce that CVU has secured an impressive 2nd place overall at the Vermont Brain Bee, a neuroscience competition for high school students hosted at the Larner School of Medicine, UVM. A big congratulations to Alaina Tyler for her outstanding achievement, clinching 2nd place in the individual competition! With the 1st place winner unable to attend the National Brain Bee Competition, Alaina has graciously stepped up to represent Vermont at the national stage in Orlando, Florida in mid-April. Moreover, CVU showcased its talent with three students landing in the top 8, including Kennedy Desautels, who represented Burlington Tech Center and tied for 3rd place overall. We are so proud of all our CVU Brain Bee competitors and applaud their dedication in preparation for this remarkable event. Huge shout out to club leaders, Elle McAvey, Kennedy Desautels and Seb Lemos who prepare for each club meeting and lead learning activities for the club! Please congratulate: Sebastian Lemos, Jack Daly, Kennedy Desautels, Elle McAvey, Winston Ross, and Alaina Tyler!

From Sarah Strack: CVU Nordic ended its regular season races with a fun costume race at Sleepy Hollow on Thursday. Skiers had to run to their skis, put them on, then start the race! The costumes were fantastic, making for a fun end to the regular season before the state championship races.

Kirkland's and Hood's AP Statistics classes constructed confidence intervals for the true proportion of water covering Earth's surface. Despite the many data collection weaknesses involving tossing an Earth beach ball around and identifying whether their pinky finger landed on water or land, most sections captured the true proportion! In this photo, W4's Danica Bostwick gives Earth a hearty toss.

From Sophie Madden: CVU x Folino's T-shirts coming soon! Ranked best pizza by Seven Days two years in a row, everyone loves Folino's wood fired pizzas. CVU x Folino's is run by students in their Principles of Business class.

All profits will be donated to the Folino Family Farm, established in 2020. Since then they have planted 30,000 trees. The farm raises livestock, plants trees, and grows food in an area of Uganda that has almost been completely deforested. For every dollar donated, Folino’s Pizza will match up to $10,000.

Support CVU and Folinos when you purchase a shirt for $20. Enjoy a $5 discount on your order of $30 or more at Folinos when you proudly wear your shirt in! Place orders on Instagram @CVUxFolinos

Thank you to Steve Reinemann for taking the lead in organizing an amazing Winter Ball and for the throwback CVU album cover!

Anne Muessel and Claire Thibeault ensured CVU did the Penguin Plunge proud this year. Thank you!

Kudos to Olaf Verdonk. Your continual advocacy and coaching makes the RoboHawks true STATE CHAMPS!

Brad Miller's Harkness squad helped solve district-wide challenges this week. Watching them in action was as impressive as it was informative!

CVSD's Proposed 2024-2025 Budget Update

Earlier this week, the CVSD School Board's Finance Committee had a productive meeting to discuss the options and implications for the district and taxpayers regarding the proposed 2024-2025 budget. At next week's School Board meeting on Tuesday, 2/20 at 6:00 pm, the full board will come together to discuss it and work towards a decision on how to move forward.

On Wednesday, 2/21 at 6:30 pm, the district's administration and school board will host a virtual Town Hall. The focus of this Town Hall is to provide the latest information available about the proposed budget and answer questions.

We hope you can join us for these events. See the calendar on the left side of the district's homepage for details about how to attend. https://www.cvsdvt.org/ We will share another update next week.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12ENJysPhxYgwWAKwCtxprJeAKHO5s3RY/edit