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SCS Community Newsletter
Week of August 21, 2023
Principals' Message
Welcome back SCS Families and Caregivers,
We hope you've all enjoyed a fun-filled summer with family and friends. We've been super busy preparing to welcome you to school in the near future. We can't wait to see all of you on Wednesday, August 30th (we'll see our preK students the following week)...keep a lookout for our traditional green and gold balloons at the entrances on School Street for our walkers, bikers, and drop-offs, and on either entrance of the Breezeway for our bus riders. We'll also be starting our first Wednesday Walk/Roll to School opportunity - see below for more details. A friendly reminder that ALL Kindergarten students (and only Kindergarten students) will have a one hour delayed-start for the first three days of school. This is only for Kindergarten students getting dropped-off, riding bikes, walkers on School Street, and bus riders.
Please keep in mind that there may be uniformed officers present on the first few days of school. This is an annual tradition to show support and collaboration with members of our Safety Team. It might be helpful to talk with your children ahead of time, so they feel more prepared.
We will be welcoming our faculty and staff members back starting this week and preparing our school and classrooms for Meet the Teacher events coming up the following week. Elementary students will be invited by their teachers to visit SCS on Monday, August 28th in the afternoon/evening, and Middle Level students will be invited by their teams to visit SCS on Tuesday, August 29th in the afternoon. Mark your calendars to join our school-wide Open House on Thursday, September 21st. (We will be encouraging families with the last names starting with letters A-L to stop by between 5-6pm, and letters M-Z to stop by between 6-7pm to relieve parking and hallway congestion that evening.)
We strongly encourage all families to read through both the SCS Family Handbook and CVSD Family & Student Handbook. If time is tight, at least take a look at our Welcome to SCS Essential Information. Many of your questions about what to expect this school year will be answered in these handbooks, which have been updated for the year ahead. We've put a few highlights from the handbooks below. Be sure to keep scrolling down and read the rest of this newsletter to help set everyone up for a successful start to the 2023-2024 school year.
Mark Your September Calendars;
- 8/30 - First Day of School! (1 hour early-release), Walk/Roll to School @ 7:30am Pierson Library, PTO Community Gathering 8am-10am Shelburne Field House
- 8/31 - Athletics begin
- 9/4 - Labor Day - No School
- 9/12 - PTO Meeting 6pm in SCS Green Space (pizza and childcare provided)
- 9/18 - School Photos, PTO Dynamic Experiences Ticket Sale Begins
- 9/19 - School Photos, CVSD School Board Meeting at 6pm (Central Office)
- 9/20 - School Photos & DEI Coffee Conversations @ 8am (SCS)
- 9/25 - Yom Kippur - No School
We look forward to seeing all of you soon!
Take care,
Alison, Brett, & Emily
Important Info for Day One
Meet our New Registrar and the rest of our amazing SCS Office Team!
We are excited to welcome the newest member to our main office team, Katie Schut (our new Registrar). Click her photo to see additional members of our SCS Office Team. These are some of the key folks who keep the school running, working to support all 740 + students and 179 staff members that are part of the SCS community. Please check out the documents below to help them continue to do so.
Help us Welcome our Newest SCS Faculty & Staff Members!
We are also welcoming the following new faculty and staff members this year:
- Connor Adams - Team Para
- Pete Boardman - Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports Coordinator
- Dakota Carpenter - Permanent Building Guest Teacher
- Brittany Clays - Howard Center School-Based Clinician
- Morgan Davis - Intensive Para
- Caitlin Downey - Social-Emotional Behavioral Interventionist (joined us last year)
- Stephanie Dupras - Communications Specialist (returning to SCS :)
- Paden Fortier - IT (joined us last year)
- Maddie Heavey - Special Educator (joined us last year)
- Kenzie Huot - Team Para
- Regina Kasem - Team Para
- Dina Kazmier - Team Para
- Katie Kinville - PreK Para
- David Leng - Atlas Social Worker
- Kate Lucia - Library Media Specialist
- Olivia Mauro - Special Educator
- Celeste Matte - Special Educator
- Jasmine Nakhleh - Intensive Para
- Ethan Naylor - Intensive Para
- Darcy Patnode - Atlas BI
- Meghan Pidgeon - Atlas BI
- Sophie Roy - Music Teacher
- Sandy Rublee - Custodian (joined us last year)
- Shannon Smullen - Team Para (joined us last year)
Annual Forms Update
In order to have the most up-to-date information when school starts on August 30th, please make sure you complete the annual forms update through the PowerSchool Parent Portal site. Click here to review where to find the forms once you have logged into your parent portal account. Each form should be reviewed and updated, then submitted ASAP. This will ensure that our staff has enough time to review and input your information into our system before the first day of school. Please note that the health form and permission form must be submitted before a student is allowed to go on any field trips.
Arrival Process
The student school day begins at 7:50am. All students should be in their classroom by 7:50am.
Drop-off is on School Street only. Please do not have vehicles idle in the drop-off lane, we need to keep the line moving. It's helpful to have kids sit on the passenger side of the car to access the sidewalk safely. If you need to park, please use Davis Circle for short-term parking.
Buses will continue using our Bus Circle in the front of the building.
Morning Movement is available for all K-8 families who need to drop students off at school by 7:30am beginning Tuesday, September 5th. If you are able to help supervise students in the gym or on the playground during this time, please connect with Alison or Brett.
Attendance Process
Consistent attendance is essential for the success of all students, and will help us reach our goal of 100% of students feeling a sense of belonging and show growth over time. We take attendance daily for all students. We legally need to send letters home for every 5, 10, 15, and 20 absences. Administration may ask to set up an attendance plan meeting at 15 or 20 absences.
Please contact Jen Marx at 802-383-1101 or jmarx@cvsdvt.org, if your child will be absent from school or if you have any attendance questions.
Dismissal Process
We begin dismissing bus riders at 2:45pm daily, as well as students attending Part2 after school care. We dismiss all other students after all of the buses leave the bus circle. We are considering making a shift to our dismissal routine by inviting walkers/rollers to leave the classroom with the bus riders, but will not put this in place until it is talked through with our faculty, staff, and students. As always, safety is our top priority with any proposed change to our systems. More to come on this soon.
Pick-up is on School Street only. Please do not have vehicles idle.
On Wednesdays we have early-release for students. Bus riders are dismissed at 1:45pm on Wednesdays. Our first day of school is an early-release day.
We will always use your default dismissal schedule, unless you contact Jane Graham at 802-383-1101 or jgraham@cvsdvt.org in the main office before 1:45pm (12:45pm on Wednesdays). We will not be able to accommodate a change in dismissal plans after that time.
Communications
See-Saw Platform
We are expanding our use of Seesaw this year across all of our PreK-8 classrooms! Seesaw is both a digital learning journal for students and a powerful tool that connects families with student and classroom learning. Seesaw also provides your child with creative tools to capture and reflect on their learning - in real-time. The students’ Seesaw portfolios will collect evidence of students’ involvement in learning, which is designed to demonstrate success, growth, higher-order thinking, creativity, assessment strategies and reflection.
Here’s a video introduction to Seesaw for families and additional resources.
You can download the “Seesaw Parent & Family” app for iOS, Android, or you can use the web to view your student’s learning artifacts. When your child adds new work, you will receive a notification to see, hear and respond to your child’s post. You will only have access to your own child’s work and all of the content is stored securely.
More information will be shared by classroom teachers with families in the weeks to come.
Transportation
Walk/Roll to School Opportunities! (Bonnie and Barb)
Starting on the very first day of school, Wednesday, August 30th, we will begin our Walk/Roll to school opportunity. Families can drop (or join) kids off at the Pierson Library by 7:30am, on Wednesdays and a group will walk from the center of Shelburne to the school by 7:50am. (We will not be including bus riders, yet.) Students will follow their regular dismissal plan at the end of the day.
Please reach out to Alison (acelmer@cvsdvt.org), Bonnie (bonnie@localmotion.org) or Barb (bvejohn@aol.com) with questions, and/or if you'd like to volunteer your time to help support this walk/ride to school experience for our SCS students.
Bus Plans
Please be aware that;
- K's will get picked up one hour later in the morning for the first 3 days of school.
- Please be at the bus stop 5 minutes before the time listed on the Bus Routes/Stops, Times doc below.
- Buses are not stopping at every stop - students/families should go to the nearest street # or street name if you don't see your address listed that is closest to you in the document linked below. This will help us expedite the efficiency of our bus routes in an effort to reduce the length of time students are riding on the buses.
- We will no longer drive into Harrington Village - all students need to walk safely on the sidewalk to the corner of Harrington that meets at route 7.
- Feel free to reach out to PJ (lead driver) at pjoyal@cvsdvt.org or Barry Russell at brussell@cvsdvt.org (CVSD Transportation Director) with any bus-related questions.
- Reach out to Jane Graham (receptionist) at jgraham@cvsdvt.org or Jen Marx (attendance clerk) at jmarx@cvsdvt.org with any questions related to unexpected dismissal changes. If you change your regular dismissal routines in PowerSchool, please also email Jane, Jen, and the classroom teacher. Thank you!
Bus Expectations (for adults to review with children)
Food Service
Food Menus
We are excited to share that ALL meals will be FREE for ALL children 18 years and younger. We will provide daily breakfast, snacks, and lunch for any child who requests food.
Click the image for more info.
Community/Family Engagement
Parent Teacher Organization/Partners To Opportunities (PTO)
MEMBERS:
Co-Chairs: Mark Monaghan (monaghan77@gmail.com) and Devin Beringer (devin@consultap.com)
Treasurer: Ken Scott (kenscottvt@gmail.com)
Secretary: Amanda Broder (abroder14@gmail.com)
Social Media Coordinator: Hayley Cimler (hayley.cimler@gmail.com)
Teacher Reps: Katie Birkett, Alysia Wakeman, and Megan Maynard-Jacob
Additional Members & Volunteer Opportunities
EVENTS:
Aug 28th Welcome back staff breakfast, hosted by PTO
Aug 30th Community Connections Gathering 8am-10am at Shelburne Field House (ALL families are welcome!)
Sept 12th First PTO Meeting (6:00pm, Green Team space)
Sept 18th Dynamic Experiences Fundraiser Ticket Sales Begin
Sept 21st Open House at Shelburne Community School 5-7pm
Click the image for more info!
Ways to Get Involved at SCS...(the Volunteer Process)
Everybody Wins Mentoring (grades K-4)
Everybody Wins is a mentoring program with community volunteers mentoring K-4 students with a focus on reading and playing games during lunch and recess blocks weekly.
We're still looking for a Coordinator for Everybody Wins Mentoring for our K-4 students. If you are interested in this position, please contact Beth Wallace at beth@everybodywinsvermont.org.
Celebrations!
CVSD Info
Find information about monthly School Board Meetings, community forums such as the DEI Town Hall, and more on the district website. See the year at a glance on the 2023-2024 K-8 School Year Calendar. The CVSD Mission is to develop citizens who learn, think, live, contribute, and pursue excellence. See The CVSD Story for the latest blog posts about what's happening across the district.
Let's Talk
SCS PTO
Still Need More Information?
Website: https://www.cvsdvt.org/shelburne
Shelburne Community School Administration
Brett Cluff, 5-8 Principal
Emily Cogan, Director of Special Education