ACSD Newsletter April/May 2023

5th graders across our district head to Keewaydin this week and next to investigate the natural world and spend a week together.

We have so many highlights to share from our schools as we rush toward the end of the school year!

• It's Teacher Appreciation Week! Thank you for the words, gifts, and treats you have already sent in to celebrate our teachers. We also hope you will also fill out this Appreciation/Nomination form!
• I want to extend a warm welcome (back!) to Courtney Krahn who will be our new Director of Teaching and Learning and Zach Jerome who will join Michaela Wisell as the Assistant Principal at MUMS next year! Read more about each of them below. They will begin their new positions on July 1st, 2023.
• 5th graders across the district completed their Exhibition Projects and 10th graders completed their Personal Projects. Look for the amazing things they investigated and accomplished below!
• Earlier this week, our Teaching and Learning team sent a full newsletter about International Baccalaureate (IB). We hope this newsletter gives families an overview of IB, answers many of the common questions we receive and sets our community on a path to understand IB and how it is working at ACSD.
• Our Action Team - a group of students, teachers, staff, and parents/caregivers have been working since January on a new strategic plan for equity. They share an update below on their work.
• As the Board shared in an email last week, they are now working to identify an interim superintendent for the 2023-24 and will share any updates with the full community soon.

The final days are filled with celebration and excitement. Your school will share details for upcoming dances, field trips, transition days, commencements, and other end of year celebrations. I hope you are able to visit and enjoy time with our students and in our schools in the coming weeks.

With gratitude,

Peter Burrows, Superintendent

We truly have an exceptional, dedicated, creative, and brilliant staff! Although this week highlights our appreciation, we are grateful to their contributions all year long.

We also use this week to kick off nominations for our Teacher & Staff of the Year awards (awarded at the August 2023 staff Welcome Back event). We hope you'll take a moment to share something that any of our teachers or staff have done this year to support you or a student or to make our community better. Click the button below to share your appreciation or nomination for any teacher or staff! Last year we used this form to share over 170 appreciations that were written by parents, students, and colleagues!

For the last 18 years, Courtney has worked as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and curriculum leader in middle and high schools in Vermont and Wisconsin. Nine of those years were spent either in the classroom at MUMS or helping to coordinate curricula within and between MUMS and MUHS. Most recently, she has served as the Assistant Principal at Charlotte Central School.

Her professional passions include curriculum development and alignment, project-based learning, Universal Design for Learning, flexible pathways, and restorative practices.

Courtney graduated from Dickinson College (B.A.) and Middlebury College (M.A.), and she is a National Board Certified teacher. She serves on the Board of the Mary Johnson Children’s Center in Middlebury, and she is a graduate of the Snelling Center for Government’s Vermont School Leadership Project (Class of 2022).

She lives in Cornwall, VT with her husband – an MUHS language and literature teacher – and her three kids. She loves hands-on projects, reading and writing, the Vermont State Parks, and new adventures.

Zach received his degree in Elementary Education and History from Johnson State College and his graduate degree in Education Administration from Fort Hays State University.

He spent his first four years at Milton Elementary School teaching first and third grade. He has spent time learning and implementing Responsive Classroom and help to shape the math curriculum. At Milton Middle School he works with 5th and 8th grade students with a focus on behavior support and management, conducting HHB and Title IX investigations and planing and implementing Restorative Practices.

When not in school, he spends time with his kiddos who have taken up many of his interests including mountain biking, skiing, cooking and watching the Patriots.

During their exhibition projects, 5 graders across our district completed and presented their Exhibition Projects. Exhibition is a chance for students to dive in to a social action inquiry project there they research, present, and take action. Many researched the UN Sustainability goals and took action to benefit our local and global community. There were over 40 actions - an incredible impact for our growing learners to have on a community!

Over the last few weeks, our 5th (and a few 4th) graders have:

• Testified at the legislature in support of universal student meals
• Learned sign language and taught a Kindergarten class
• Met with Congresswoman Balint to advocate for mental health and SSI benefits
• Planned for a school chicken coop
• Wrote letters to our local representatives
• Planned numerous Green Up day activities for our local rivers and trails
• Made petitions to support gender equality
• Raised money to support organizations like the Water Wells for Africa, the Malala foundation, and a local children's hospital
• Collected plastics to recycle into other products
• Planned a clothing swap
• Made informational videos and flyers about renewable energy, climate change and human rights

The personal projects highlight the incredible diversity of students we have at MUHS. The MUHS gym was abuzz as student presented their projects which included wiring a radio in a Jeep, raising Nigerian Dwarf goats, learning to suture a wound, making a reversible bowtie, making a true crime podcast, running a marathon, crafting a sword, installing an in-ground pool, learning about horse anatomy and how to barrel race horses, studying drone photography, assembling a minibike engine, making a coloring book about black hair, boat building, cake decorating, and truly so many more incredible projects. If you know a 10th grader, ask them about their personal project!

In our last community newsletter, we shared that we were drafting a full newsletter devoted to understanding IB at ACSD. Earlier this week, we sent this email from our Teaching & Learning Team. The email was titled "IB at ACSD: An overview and FAQ."

We hope the newsletter helps you understand our teaching and learning framework at ACSD and can serve as a reference to you in the future. We will look for ongoing ways to include staff, students, and families in conversations as we continue building a strong, vibrant curriculum for our students. We will also include an IB Q+A section in future community newsletters. There is a form at the bottom of the newsletter where you can ask remaining questions. If you missed the IB at ACSD email, click here to read it.

Join us for an evening of learning and connecting with other families on May 10th! Childcare and refreshments provided.

Our ACSD Action Team is comprised of students, staff, and parent/caregivers who are working to create a new strategic plan for equity. The Action Team is currently building the strategies and action steps that will meet the ACSD Board's 3 goals:

• Everyone will feel safe, welcomed, and included in our schools and the district. Students and families will be able to engage with the school system in valuable ways. [Belonging]
  
• ACSD will allocate resources to address students’ needs across the district in equitable, sustainable, and fiscally responsible ways. ACSD will maintain infrastructure and facilities that support varied learning and successful outcomes for all of our students. [Access]
  
• ACSD’s learning environment will inspire a passion for learning and value diverse identities and abilities, while preparing our students to make positive contributions to the community and beyond. [Success]
  

In March and April, the Action Team invited district and community members with professional or personal expertise to share what they think ACSD is doing well and what ACSD needs to improve to meet the Board's goals for all of our students at ACSD. In May, the Action Team began working to prioritize the strategies and action steps that have been generated over the March and April meetings.

You can read more about the Action Team and updates from their work here.

The Board paused their initial superintendent search and they are now working to identify a qualified interim superintendent for the District. The Board has advertised the interim position and has created an Ad Hoc Search Committee to assist the Board in selecting an Interim Superintendent by the end of May. You can find updates from the Board here.

In a recent email we shared the news that we are migrating to a new website. The rollout was initially scheduled for late May but will now occur in early summer. Thanks to those who reached out to say you would be interested in helping us review it, we will be in touch as the time comes. Contact Emily Blistein, Communications Director with any questions or interest: eblistein@acsdvt.org

We keep an "ACSD Events" calendar, which you can find here and download to your personal calendar. It holds all school breaks, early release days, and other dates that are helpful to our ACSD community. Here are a couple of important upcoming dates:

• May 8-12 - Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 25 - Incoming 6th Grade Parent Info Night
• June 7 - 6th and 9th grade transition day
• June 10 - MUHS Graduation
• Week of June 12-16 - Elementary 5th Grade Promotions (check your school newsletter for updated times/dates)
• June 15 - MUMS Promotion
• June 16 - Last day of school for MUHS, MUMS, Bridport, Cornwall, Mary Hogan, Shoreham, Weybridge)
• June 19 - Last day of school for Salisbury & Ripton (due to an extra snow/power outage day)

You can find board meetings, agendas, and the zoom link to watch every board meeting on this webpage. The School Board's quarterly updates are sent to all ACSD community members by email, and can be found on the website here. Please note that the board meetings have returned to their start time of 6:30pm and are always available on zoom. You can find them on our events calendar, here.

We use our newsletter and social media to stay connected and give you a peek into our classrooms. For more regular connection and lots of photos, follow us: Insta: @acsdvtschools FB: @acsdvt TW: @acsdvtschools

Remember to send a note in advance or call if your child will be late, absent, needs to leave early, or has a change in their after-school plans. Here are the numbers to every front office:

• Bridport Central School 802-758-2331 | 3442 VT Route 22A Bridport, VT 05734
• Cornwall Elementary School 802-462-2463 | 112 School Road Cornwall, VT 05753
• Mary Hogan School 802-388-4421 | 201 Mary Hogan Drive Middlebury, VT 05753
• Middlebury Union High School 802-382-1500 | 73 Charles Avenue Middlebury, VT 05753
• Middlebury Union Middle School 802-382-1600 | 48 Deerfield Lane Middlebury, VT 05753
• Ripton Elementary School 802-388-2208 | PO Box 155, 753 Lincoln Road Ripton, VT 05766
• Salisbury Community School 802-352-4291 | 286 Kelly Cross Road Salisbury, VT 05769
• Shoreham Elementary School 802-897-7181 | 130 School Road Shoreham, VT 05770
• Weybridge Elementary School 802-545-2113 | 210 Quaker Village Road Weybridge, VT 05753